TRAILMAKERS OF 
THE NORTHWES 




PAUL L.HAWORT 




Class XmiaA 
Ronk H^ 



CoipghtN" 

COEVBicirr DEPosrr. 




From photograph bji the Anther 

Falls discovered by the Author near Mt. Lloyd George 



TRAILMAKERS OF THE 
NORTHWEST 



BY 

PAUL LELAND HAWORTH 

AUTHOR OF "on the HEADWATERS OF PEACE RIVER," " GEORGB 
WASHINGTON: FARMER," "THE UNITED STATES IN 

OUR OWN TIMES, I865-I920," ETC. 
FOLLOW OF TH£ AMBKiCAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY 



ILLUSTRATED 



a 




NEW YORK 

HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY 
1921 



.H4 



COPYRIGHT, I92I, BY 
HARCOURT, BKACE AND COMPANY, INC 






PRINTED IN THE U. S A BY 

THE QUINN a BOOEN COMPANY 

RAHWAY, N. J. 



0)CI.A622659 



\^ 



/ 



PREFACE 

The story of the exploration of the American North- 
west is one of the most picturesque and romantic in hu- 
man annals. Adventurous men, pushing into the un- 
known at the hazard of their lives, discovered wilderness 
oceans whose waters seemed to mingle with the sky, fol- 
lowed the winding courses of mighty rivers for thou- 
sands of miles, found their way through mountain laby- 
rinths where craggy peaks lifted high their ice-clad sum- 
mits, hunted strange and dangerous wild beasts, traded 
and fought with tribes of treacherous, red-skinned aborig- 
ines who might be friends to-day and deadly enemies 
to-morrow, and finally, after centuries of effort, stood 
upon the shores of the vast Pacific and gazed westward 
over its heaving waters toward the old " Cathay." 

For many years I have been an eager reader of the 
literature of the subject, and repeatedly I have myself 
made expeditions to the dwindling regions that yet re- 
main unexplored. The present book is the outcome of 
this reading and of these first-hand experiences. It does 
not purport to be exhaustive. It is rather an impres- 
sionistic picture of a great epic movement, and, frankly, 
it is a book for boys — young and old. 

In an appendix the reader will find a list of books, 
some of which, I hope, he will take the trouble to consult. 
By so doing he can become the partner of many an inter- 
esting adventurer and can enjoy by proxy unlimited 
thrilling experiences. That these books — I name only 



IV 



PREFACE 



the very best — are not more widely read is a vast pity, 
and is due to the fact that the great general public is 
unaware of their existence, or at least of their possibilities 
for pleasure unalloyed. 

Paul L. Haworth. 

Eastover 

West Newton, Indiana 

January, 1921 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Beaver and His Wonderful Works and 
How THE Demand for His Fur Led to 
Great Discoveries i 

II. The Discovery of Hudson Bay and the 

Great Lakes 12 

III. Pierre Radisson and How His Explorations 

Led to the Founding of the Hudson's Bay 
Company 19 

IV. Samuel Hearne and His Search for a Cop- 

per Mine 26 

V. M. De la Verendrye and His Search for the 

Western Sea 52^ 

VI. How Mackenzie Reached the Arctic . . 56 

VII. How Mackenzie Reached the Pacific . . 68 

VIII. The Fur-Trading Adventures of Alexander 

Henry 88 

IX. Methods of Travel in the Fur Land . . 126 

X. How the Red River Half-Breeds Hunted 

the Buffaloes 145 

XI. Further Sidelights of Indian Life . . . 155 

XIT. The Tragic Voyages of Sir John Franklin 167 

V 



vi CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

XIII. Later Travelers and Explorers in the Ca- 

nadian Northwest i86 

XIV. How Amundsen Made the Northwest Pas- 

sage 226 

XV. The Coming of the Settlers 241 

XVI. The Brotherhood of Trappers and Pros- 
pectors of To-day 249 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Falls Discovered by the Author Near Mt. Lloyd 
George Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Beaver on Top of His Lodge 6 

" So Passed from View Henry Hudson " . . . . 14 

A Blackfoot Medicine Man 24 

A Beaver Dam 40 

Bloody Falls, Coppermine River 40 

A Mandan Chief 54 

Entrance to Peace River Canyon 76 

Peace River in the Heart of the Rockies ... 76 

Indian Tepees on the Great Plains 94 

Mandan Village ON the Missouri River, 1832 . . 114 

Dog Trains in the Foothills of the Rockies . . 122 
Scow Running the Grand Canyon of the Frozen 

River 130 

Portaging a Dugout Canoe on the Upper Finlay 

River 132 

Free Trader Bringing in Fur in Midwinter . . , 136 
Jasper House, a Fur Post on the Headwaters of 

the Athabasca River 142 

On the Great Plains Near the Elbow of the Sas- 
katchewan 152 

vii 



viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

FAaNG PAGE 

Plains Indians i6o 

Dog Trains at Old Fort Garry, Near Winnipeg . i88 
Mountains Near the Headquarters of the Sas- 
katchewan 202 

" I Had the Good Fortune to Kill an Immense 

Bull Moose " 222 

After the Settler Came Sod Hut and Buffalo 

Bones 242 

The Coming of Wheat and the Self-Binder . . 246 
Shorty Webber's Cabin and Cache on the Finlay 

River 252 

" The Wooden Tepee Whose Very Embers Spoke 

Eloquently of the Direness of His Need " . . 258 

Trappers and Dugout Canoe 264 

A Prospector " Panning " for Gold 264 



TRAILMAKERS OF THE 
NORTHWEST 

CHAPTER I 

THE BEAVER AND HIS WONDERFUL WORKS AND HOW THE 
DEMAND FOR HIS FUR LED TO GREAT DISCOVERIES 

The exploration of a large part of what is now Canada 
and the United States was due to the presence of the 
little animal we call the beaver. 

Spanish explorers in America sought gold and silver 
and precious stones, and found them. Cortez and Pizarro 
and their mail-clad followers, riding strange animals and 
armed with steel swords and lances and with guns and 
cannon that spoke with the voice of thunder and sent 
invisible death from afar, conquered Mexico and Peru 
and obtained vast booty. For generations thereafter the 
mines and fisheries of Spanish America sent yearly to the 
homeland tall galleons filled with bars of silver and gold 
and frails of magnificent pearls, and Spain was envied 
by all other European nations for her New World treas- 
ure house. And in the days of Good Queen Bess British 
sea captains like Drake and Grenville lay in wait for the 
tall galleons and took and plundered them, for in those 
days even pious Englishmen deemed it no sin to spoil 
Spaniards and Papists. 

French, British, and Dutch explorers in North America 
also sought eagerly for precious metals, but in vain. Now 
and then some optimistic navigator sailed home with a 

1 



2 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

shipload of earth filled with specks of glittering mica, 
which he fondly believed to be gold, but two centuries 
and a half elapsed after Columbus's first landfall before 
either gold or silver was found in considerable quantities 
in the region north of that held by the Spaniards. 

Nevertheless, settlers finally established themselves 
along the Atlantic seaboard and wrung a livelihood from 
the soil and from fisheries. Furthermore, the land was 
rich in fur-bearing animals whose furs were light and 
easily transported and were in demand in Europe, and the 
fur trade, in a measure, made up for the failure to find 
precious metals. 

The skins of otters, bears, mink, martens, lynxes, and 
other animals were eagerly sought, but the main staple of 
all the fur trade was the beaver skin. It surpassed in 
importance all others combined, and, as we shall explain 
in detail later, became the unit of value over half the 
continent. 

The beaver, as most people are aware, is a small 
animal, averaging thirty or forty pounds weight, but occa- 
sionally reaching sixty or seventy. It has exceedingly 
powerful chisel-shaped front teeth, webbed hind feet, a 
flat scaly tail, and is covered with a short, dense, and 
silky fur that is overgrown with long coarse hairs. For 
centuries this fur was greatly prized for the making of 
hats. 

In the early days the habitat of the beaver extended 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Gulf to 
Hudson Bay and the Arctic. Wherever within these 
limits conditions were favorable the beaver was likely to 
be found. 

Water he must have, not only to drink but as protection 
against wolves and other enemies. Trees or brushwood 



THE BEAVER AND HIS WORKS 3 

must be present, for the beaver lives almost wholly upon 
bark and twigs, though at times he eats berries and the 
roots of such water plants as lilies and spatterdocks. 

Some beavers are content merely to live in burrows 
dug in the banks of rivers or streams. These are some- 
times called " bank beavers," and I have had trappers 
tell me that they form a separate species, but this is 
not the case. Much more interesting are those that build 
dams and live in hutches or lodges built in the ponds 
thus formed. 

The dams vary in length from a few feet to a quarter 
or half a mile. The main object of these dams is to 
keep the water at a certain level. The ponds themselves 
vary greatly in size; I have seen them hardly more than 
puddles a few yards across, and I remember one in north- 
ern British Columbia that covers several hundred acres. 
The small dams are likely to be the work of a single 
family; in the building of the longer ones several families 
cooperate. 

Most dams are built of branches and small logs, chinked 
with mud, but beavers will also use stones or whatever 
material happens to be handy. It was long popularly 
believed that in building them the beaver made use of his 
flat tail as a trowel, but this is a myth long since exploded. 
The beaver carries the mud clasped between his short 
forepaws and his breast, and does not use his tail in the 
building process at all. He seems, however, to use his 
tail to a certain extent in swimming and when alarmed 
he will slap the top of the water with it, making a report 
that can be heard a long distance. More than once in the 
far Northland I have been awakened by beavers that in 
swimming past our camp would get the dreaded man- 
scent and would then slap their tails on the water. 



4 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

In selecting a site for his dam the beaver displays much 
intelligence. He chooses a place where the water will 
form a pond close to which there will be plenty of sap- 
lings and trees of the varieties that make good food, such, 
for example, as birch, poplar, alder, etc.; as a rule a 
beaver eats the bark and twigs of deciduous trees only 
and does not care for evergreens like pine, cedar, or 
spruce. He selects a narrow spot in the stream, so that 
his dam will be as short as possible; and he takes every 
advantage of fallen trees, rocks, or other objects that 
will help to anchor the structure. 

On small streams that do not have much current or 
that are not subiect to big floods a single dam is usually 
considered sufficient by the flat-tailed engineers. On 
more powerful streams they sometimes employ a plan so 
ingenious that it seems incredible that an animal could 
have the intelligence to have evolved it. Below the main 
dam they will construct another dam, which backs up the 
water against the main dam and helps to support it 
against the pressure from above. They have even been 
known to build a third dam in order to give support for 
the second. 

Once the dam is built the beavers keep close watch 
upon it. A spillway, or perhaps several, has been pro- 
vided, over which the surplus water can run; in case one 
of these ways is cut too deep by the current, the animals 
soon repair the damage done, for it is a prime object to 
keep the water always at the same level. If the injury 
is slight, one beaver may make all the repairs; if a con- 
siderable gap has been cut, as by a flood, all will pitch 
in and with sticks and earth will fill up the break. 

Trappers take advantage of this habit of beavers with 
fatal effect. They will cut a breach in the dam and then 



THE BEAVER AND HIS WORKS 5 

round it will set their traps, knowing that when darkness 
comes the industrious animals will be almost certain to 
set to work making repairs and will thus put their feet 
in the traps. 

Having completed their dam, the beavers are likely 
to begin building their hutch or house. This is usually 
made of sticks and mud, with the foundation deep enough 
in water so that a passageway will be left under the ice 
even in the coldest winter, while the conical top rises 
well above the surface. Late in the fall the beavers are 
likely to give their house an extra coating of mud. This 
soon freezes and forms a covering that is impenetrable 
by wolves, wolverines, or any of the beaver's other ene- 
mies except man. 

The hutches vary in size from heaps of mud and sticks 
six or eight feet across and three or four feet high to 
structures several times as large. The largest I ever hap- 
pened to have seen lies near the Quadacha River in a 
remote part of northern British Columbia. As it was a 
considerable distance out in a large pond, I was unable to 
get near enough to measure it, but it was certainly up- 
wards of thirty feet across at the base and nine or ten 
feet high. 

These big houses are usually inhabited by two or more 
families; the smaller houses by only one. Where two or 
more families occupy a hutch there will, of course, be 
more than one room within, which may or may not be 
connected; and it is possible that it is this circumstance 
that first gave rise to fanciful stories that beavers have 
several rooms appropriated to different uses, such as eat- 
ing, sleeping, and storing provisions. All close observers 
of the beaver declare that this is not the case. Upon this 
subject Samuel Hearne, whose adventurous experiences 



6 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

will be described in detail a little later, says: " It fre- 
quently happens that some of the larger houses are found 
to have one or more partitions^ if they deserve that appel- 
lation; but that is no more than a part of the main build- 
ing, left by the sagacity of the beaver to support the roof. 
On such occasions, it is common for those different apart- 
ments, as some are pleased to call them, to have no com- 
munication with each other but by water; so that in fact 
they may be called double or treble houses, rather than 
different apartments of the same house. I have seen a 
large beaver house built in a small island that had near a 
dozen apartments under one roof; and, two or three of 
these excepted, none of them had any communication 
with each other but by water. As there were beavers 
enough to inhabit each apartment it is more than prob- 
able that each family knew its own, and always entered 
at their own door." 

As a rule, each apartment, whether there be one or sev- 
eral in a house, has at least two entrances. Doubtless 
this is partly because the beavers wish to be sure of an 
avenue of escape in case one entrance should be blocked 
by an enemy. 

The size of the interior chambers varies greatly. Some 
are no more than three or four feet in diameter and two 
feet high. Exceptional ones have been found that were a 
dozen or even twenty feet across. Ten years ago when on 
a hunting trip in Alberta in the wilderness of mountains 
that lies around the headwaters of the Athabasca and 
Saskatchewan rivers my Cree Indian guide, Jimmy Paul, 
told me a strange story of such a big beaver apartment. 
Poor Jimmy! we ran into wretched weather on the trip, 
with a great deal of rain and snow, and he suffered so 
much that he died two days after his return. His story 




m 



THE BEAVER AND HIS WORKS 7 

was that once when a small lad he was traveling with 
his parents and brothers and sisters in the foothills and 
they were overtaken by one of the great forest fires that 
so often devastate the region. Escape by flight was 
impossible, but fortunately close by there was a small 
beaver pond in which stood an enormous hutch that the 
father and other Indian hunters had broken into that 
spring. The father put his squaw and the children into 
this house and covered the opening with a wet blanket, 
while he himself stood in the water outside, with another 
wet blanket over his head. The fire came roaring through 
the woods like a tornado. A she-bear and two cubs, 
several deer, and a bull moose also took refuge in the 
pond. The flames leapt right over the water and caught 
in the trees beyond. The father was half stifled with heat 
and smoke, but by frequently ducking his head he kept 
the blanket around it wet, while he threw water on the 
one he had put over the opening in the lodge. Despite 
these efforts, both blankets were badly singed, but the 
lives of all the Indians, big and little, were saved. Most 
of the deer were killed, and the moose and the bears were 
badly burned about the heads, but, when the fire finally 
passed, they were able to walk away. 

In building dams and in gathering food beavers cut 
trees ranging from mere saplings up to those that are 
two or, occasionally, even three feet in diameter. The 
rapidity with which with their powerful teeth they will 
fell a tree is astonishing. Not infrequently the cutting 
looks as if it had been done with an axe, though closer 
inspection will show the marks of the broad teeth. When 
once a tree is down, the beavers cut off the limbs and cut 
the trunk itself into convenient lengths, though they do 
not do this with trunks too large to be moved. 



8 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

The chief food of the beaver is bark, not the outside 
shell but the cambium layer, which is more nutritious. 
They also eat some of the wood beneath the bark but 
probably get little food value from it. In spring, sum- 
mer, and fall they eat their meals wherever it happens 
to be convenient, but for winter use they sink in the water 
near their lodge a heap of limbs and poles. 

It is in the transportation of this store of food that the 
beaver displays perhaps his greatest intelligence. If 
trees or saplings of the right variety stand at the edge of 
his pond, he can, of course, cut them down and then do 
almost all the work of transportation by water. Some- 
times a tree, when cut, falls right into the pond, in which 
case the job is easy. But not infrequently it happens 
that the beavers exhaust the supply of trees close to the 
water and must go considerable distances for their food. 
One traveling in beaver country will often see the roads 
along which the beavers have dragged the limbs, and it 
is noticeable that the animals have been careful to clear 
away the obstacles that might impede the transportation 
work. 

Where circumstances are favorable beavers have been 
known — incredible as it may seem — to dig canals from 
their pond to the trees they intend to cut. These canals 
are usually two or three feet wide and deep enough to 
float a limb or small log. To supply water for the canals 
the flat-tailed engineers will tap springs or brooks and 
divert the water into their waterway. In case the ground 
slopes up they will even construct a dam and then con- 
tinue the work at a higher level. Sometimes several such 
dams or locks are used. Down these canals the beavers 
float the limbs and logs, pulling them over the dams. 

The beaver displays so much skill as an engineer that 



THE BEAVER AND HIS WORKS g 

many naturalists consider him the most intelligent of all 
animals. And yet he is not all-wise even in doing the 
kinds of work that I have described. I recall that near 
one of my camps in the far Northwest I noticed two 
striking instances of the beaver's limitations. The ani- 
mals had been felling trees that stood on the bank of a 
river that flowed close by. They wished, of course, the 
trees to fall into the water, and had they understood the 
art of " throwing " trees, by making most of the cut on 
the side nearest the water, they could have felled almost 
all the trees in that direction. But as often as not the 
main cut was on the landward side, with the result that 
the tree had fallen right away from the water. In many 
instances, in fact, the animals had gnawed in about the 
same depth from all sides, and in such cases the tree 
would fall according to the way it leaned or according to 
the way the wind was blowing. In one instance the ani- 
mals (or one animal) had attempted to cut a small poplar 
that grew between three spruce. A glance would have 
convinced a human being that the tops of the trees were 
so interlaced that the poplar could not fall. Neverthe- 
less the beavers had set to work and cut the poplar com- 
pletely off. Then, when the tree did not fall, they had 
cut it down again, but had finally given up the under- 
taking as a bad job after doing a lot of useless gnawing 
about the butt. 

The effect of the work of beavers upon the contour and 
shape of the land was important far beyond what is gen- 
erally understood. There is hardly a stream in North 
America, north of Mexico, along which they did not live 
and labor, in many cases for countless generations. Their 
dams formed reservoirs which caught leaves and dead 
trees and debris of all kinds. These things in course of 



lo TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

time would decompose and would form a deep vegetable 
muck. Thus during the ages a land-forming process was 
going on. Ultimately the ponds would be transformed 
into swamps and these in turn into meadows, over which 
great forests might ultimately grow. In fact, millions 
upon millions of the richest bottom lands in the United 
States and Canada owe their existence to the labors of 
endless generations of beavers. 

On this subject Warburton Pike, in his fascinating 
book, The Barren Ground of Northern Canada, says: 
" On the second day we crossed [northwest of Great 
Slave Lake] a large prairie dotted with lakes, formerly 
the home of many beavers, and still bearing evidence of 
their labours in the long banks which served as dams and 
the huge mounds which were once their houses. The 
beavers have all gone long ago, and the ladies who wore 
the pretty fur-trimmed jackets in far-away England, 
and the husbands who grumbled at their price, are gone 
too; but the beavers have left the most impression on 
the face of the earth. Wonderful moulders of geography 
they are; a stream dammed up in a level country forms 
a huge lake where the forest stood, the trees fall as their 
roots rot in standing water, and, if the dam be not at- 
tended to by the workers, a fertile grass-covered prairie 
takes the place of the lake." 

A species of beaver inhabited Europe, and the fur of 
the animal was highly esteemed long before the discovery 
of America. The early explorers of America when they 
brought back beaver skins found a ready sale for them 
at high prices. The furs were of little weight or bulk in 
comparison with value, and this helped to make the devel- 
opment of the traffic practicable. The prices paid were 
even greater, in real value, than those of to-day. Hats 



THE BEAVER AND HIS WORKS ii 

made of such fur came to be so greatly in demand that 
in the seventeenth or eighteenth century a good " beaver " 
would sometimes bring ninety shillings, which is about 
twenty-two dollars and a half, and the purchasing power 
of money in those days was so much greater than now 
that this price was probably equivalent to at least a hun- 
dred dollars. 

To obtain the precious skins men penetrated vast dis- 
tances into savage wildernesses, great companies were 
formed to engage in the trade, and nations even fought 
each other for the control of regions rich in furs. 



CHAPTER II 

THE DISCOVERY OF HUDSON BAY AND THE GREAT LAKES 

As everybody knows, Columbus sailed in search of a 
western route to the rich East Indies and never realized 
that he had discovered a New World. Even after the 
truth was known many Europeans regarded the new con- 
tinents in the light of obstacles rather than acquisitions, 
and navigators continued to search for a way to " China 
and Cathay." In 1519 Magellan passed through the 
straits that now bear his name and, crossing a wide ocean, 
finally reached the true Indies. But the route he had 
discovered was long, and for generations men hoped that 
a more direct way through the great land barrier might 
be found. 

For hundreds of years, in fact, adventurous sea cap- 
tains kept pushing the prows of their ships up every inlet 
and river in the two Americas in the hope that the way 
would lead them at last to the open waters of the " South 
Sea," the Pacific of to-day. Even after it was clear that 
no such route existed in tropical or temperate climes, 
explorers continued down to our own time to try to find 
a way round northern North America. This search for 
the "Northwest Passage" forms one of the most ad- 
venturous and romantic chapters in all history. 

Many such navigators there were — Cabot and Cartier, 
Davis and Baffin, Frobisher and all the rest— but the 
most important for our purpose was that famous English 
dreamer and adventurer, Henry Hudson. Two danger- 

12 



HUDSON BAY AND THE GREAT LAKES 13 

ous voyages he made to the foggy, frozen sea that Hes 
to the eastward of Greenland, only to be turned back 
by impenetrable barriers of ice. On a third voyage, 
undertaken in the interest of the Dutch, he discovered, 
in 1609, the Hudson River, on whose bank rises to-day 
the great metropolis of our Western World. 

In 1 610 he set out from the Thames in the bark Dis- 
covery, and after weeks of being buffeted about by angry 
seas, sailed past southern Greenland and entered Hud- 
son Straits. Ice floes and great icebergs, miles long, 
dangerous reefs and rocky islands, indraughts and swift 
currents, made navigation perilous to the last degree, 
while the crew muttered against going further, and the 
mate, a rascal named Juet, had to be deposed for mutiny. 
But, undaunted, Hudson sailed his ship into that great 
inland sea that now bears his name, and bore away south- 
westward, hoping that the long-sought Northwest Pas- 
sage had been found. He came at last, however, to the 
west side of James Bay and realized that fickle fate had 
tricked him and that he was land-locked, with the long 
Arctic winter at hand and with a scanty supply of 
stores. 

The winter proved to be the coldest any of the explorers 
had ever experienced. Luckily there was wood in abun- 
dance, and stone fireplaces were built on the deck of the 
ship. Many birds and some other kinds of game were 
shot, but there was a shortage of bread. The gunner 
died, and others of the crew suffered from scurvy. When 
spring came, some fish were caught, but when the ice 
broke up and there was a chance to sail for home, there 
was food left for only about two weeks. Juet, the de- 
posed mate, and other malcontents, plotted to maroon 
Hudson and the loyal men so that they themselves could 



14 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

have all the food and on their return home say that 
Hudson and the others had died. 

At daybreak one morning, when Hudson came out of 
his cabin, three of the villains sprang upon him and 
bound his arms. Then the mutineers gathered round 
and jeered him. Hudson, his little son. and eight others, 
most of them weak and sick, were put into the open shal- 
lop, with some arms and cooking utensils but little or no 
food. One brave and loyal seaman from Ipswich was 
offered a chance to remain on board, but he begged to 
be set adrift with his commander. The ship then sailed 
away, leaving the boat and its occupants adrift on the 
great inland sea. 

So passed from view Henry Hudson, one of the world's 
great discoverers. His fate and that of those with him 
remains one of the mysteries of the merciless deep. 
Whether they soon perished amid the angry waves, 
whether they were cast on some inhospitable coast and 
died of hunger or were slain by the savages, can never 
be known. A great artist has oainted a famous picture 
which represents the old navigator in the shallop, the 
helm erasned in one hand while with the other he holds 
the hand of his little lad, who sits between his knees and 
looks up into his father's face. In the background beyond 
a stretch of water towers a miehty icebere:. And on the 
noble countenance of the mariner is the boneless look of 
a brave man who is already staring into eternity. What- 
ever his fate, the famous river and the mighty bay remain 
the bold dreamer's monuments. 

It is grim satisfaction to know that it fared ill with the 
mutineers. Several were slain bv the Eskimos. Tuet. 
the traitorous mate, died of star\'?tiort in sieht of Ireland. 
Only a few sur\'ived the horrors of the homeward voyage, 




I'ri^in si-.c pointing by Collier 
"So passed from view Henry Hudson" 



HUDSON BAY AND THE GREAT LAKES 15 

and some of them were speedily seized and punished for 
mutiny. 

Admiral Sir Thomas Button sailed to Hudson Bay the 
next year on a vain search for the missing men. He win- 
tered at Port Nelson and lost so many men from scurvy 
and other causes that he could bring home only one of 
his two ships. Other expeditions, including one sent out 
by the Danes, visited the Bay in this period, but all suf- 
fered dreadful hardships, and for half a century no at- 
tempt was made at settlement. The final establishment 
of trading posts on the great inland sea was due to activi- 
ties from another direction. 

About the time that Henry Hudson was making his 
adventurous voyages, the French, under such hardy lead- 
ers as Champlain, were settling along the St. Lawrence at 
Quebec, Mont Royal (Montreal), and elsewhere. Like 
other visitors to the New World they had great hopes of 
finding silver or gold, but failing they turned their atten- 
tion to the fur trade. In 161 5 Champlain ascended the 
rapids-filled Ottawa, crossed a portage track worn smooth 
by untold generations of moccasined feet following the 
great aboriginal route between East and West, reached 
the broad expanse of demon-infested Lake Nipissing, and 
floated down the current of French River. 

Now they passed between pine-tufted craggy islands, 
where patriarchal fir-trees, shaggy with pendant mosses, 
cast dark shadows; while in the clear water the bleached 
trunks of fallen monarchs of the forest formed screens 
for hungry sharp-toothed muskellunges waiting for their" 
finny prey. Again they glided between walls of gneissic 
granite, in whose crevices the bearded cedar clung with 
snake-like roots; while aloft the rock maple, the aspen, 
and the glistening birch reared their light green foliage 



i6 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

beneath the towering white pines. In places they beheld 
where rushing fires had scorched the rocks and left dead, 
blasted trunks standing amid the blackened stumps and 
prostrate bodies of comrades half consumed. From be- 
hind lichen-clad rocks the stealthy lynx and the hungry 
cougar watched them as they floated by, the awkward 
porcupine waddled leisurely with rustling quills into the 
thicket; the loons dived into the brown water; the star- 
tled deer, come down to drink, bounded off like huge 
rabbits; and the giant moose, standing in some cove to 
escape the flies, plunged shoreward, shaking his huge 
antlers and wet sides, and with unwieldy but silent trot 
vanished in the labyrinthine woods. 

They passed the Five Mile Rapids, portaged round the 
Grand Recollet, where the river pours itself with unceas- 
ing roar into a foamy caldron, then fared onward past 
other rapids, and at length floated out upon the broad 
bosom of the " Mer Douce," the Fresh-Water Sea of the 
Hurons. 

Here they turned southward down the expanses of 
Georgian Bay, threading their course among the thirty 
thousand islands off that iron-bound coast, which, when 
the Pyramids were yet undreamed of, had for ages felt 
the wash of summer waves and the battering of winter's 
ice. At their night camps on rocky islets their fires of 
resinous driftwood glared against the dark foliage of the 
trees and shone far out over the water, while from afar 
came the lonely cry of the loon, the howl of the hungry 
wolf, and the hoarse bellow of the moose. After an inter- 
val of darkness the east would glow again with a vivid 
fire across the waters and through the dagger-like tops 
of the firs and spruce, while the fading moon would fall 
beneath the western sky. Presently the camp would be 



HUDSON BAY AND THE GREAT LAKES 17 

gistir, and after a hurried meal, Champlain, his armed 
followers, and his aboriginal guides, would board their 
birch-bark canoes and paddle onward toward the villages 
of the Hurons. Here, in due course, they arrived and 
found the Recollet Father Le Caron, who had preceded 
them. 

Thus was found a way to Lake Huron and the other 
great inland seas that lie beyond it. For generations 
the route thither by way of lakes Ontario and Erie was 
rendered too perilous by the hostile Iroquois to be much 
used by the French, but it was not long before adven- 
turous laymen like Brule and Nicolet and Joliet and La 
Salle and devoted missionaries like Allouez and Mar- 
quette had wet their canoes in the waters of lakes Mich- 
igan and Superior and had even followed the mighty 
Mississippi to the warm waters of the Gulf. Soon hardy 
coureurs de bois were trading with all the tribes of the 
interior, were mating with squaws, were rearing a dusky 
progeny whose sinewy muscles were to form much of the 
motive power behind the paddles of canoes that pushed 
still further westward, and were establishing posts at 
Detroit, Mackinaw, Vincennes, and other places. But 
this is a long and complicated story which has already 
been told far better in the picturesque pages of Parkman 
than it can ever be told again. 

For our purpose the important point is that well before 
the end of the seventeenth century white men had become 
acquainted with Hudson Bay and Lake Superior, two of 
the three important " kicking off " places for the remote 
Northwest. 

Farther south and almost a century later English traders 
and explorers from Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North 
Carolina pushed over the mountain wall into the valley 



i8 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

of the Ohio. First the colonists and England fought 
France for possession of the rich region, and then the colo- 
nists wrested it from the Mother Country in the Revo- 
lution. And in 1803 the United States purchased from 
France the vast domain then known as Louisiana and ob- 
tained control of the Missouri River, the third great ave- 
nue of approach to the Northwest. 

It was by this avenue that Lewis and Clark made much 
of their famous journey, but long before them French and 
British adventurers, pushing out from Hudson Bay and 
Lake Superior, had navigated the Saskatchewan, had 
traced the Coppermine and the Mackenzie to the Arctic 
Sea, and had even crossed the continent to the Pacific. 

It is of the deeds and adventures of these discoverers 
that we shall proceed to tell. 



CHAPTER III 

PIERRE RADISSON AND HOW HIS EXPLORATIONS LED TO 
THE FOUNDING OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY 

In the ancient town of St. Malo on the coast of western 
France there was born, about the year 1636, a child who 
is known in history as Pierre Esprit Radisson. In 1651 
his relatives emigrated to Canada and settled at the little 
post of Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence. War with 
the bloodthirsty Iroquois was raging, and bands of the 
hostiles prowled almost constantly about the post, but 
one spring morning Radisson, then only sixteen, and two 
other youths ventured beyond the walls of the post to 
shoot ducks. After killing some game the warning given 
by a herdsman so alarmed two of them that they turned 
back, but Radisson, laughing at his comrades' fears, kept 
on until he had shot more ducks than he could carry. 
Hiding some of the game in hollow trees, he started for 
the post, only to come upon the scalped remains of his 
two comrades. Soon half a hundred Iroquois dashed 
upon him, and, though he resisted, he was quickly dis- 
armed and bound. 

The captive fully expected to be tortured to death, but 
his captors, struck by his youth and courage, painted him 
with red and black paint, dressed his hair in the Indian 
fashion, and took him unharmed to their village on the 
Mohawk, where he was adopted into the tribe. Under 
their tutelage he learned woodcraft as only few men ex- 
cept the savage can know it. Once, with a captive Algon- 

19 



20 TRATLMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

quin, he slew three Iroquois and attempted to escape, 
but, when almost in sight of Three Rivers, the Algonquin 
was killed and Radisson was retaken. He was tortured 
and was saved from a horrible death only by the inter- 
cession of the warrior and squaw who had adopted him. 
Next year he accompanied a war party on a raid against 
the Eries and won favor by his valor. Finally, after two 
years of captivity, he managed to escape to Fort Orange, 
now Albany, where kindly Dutchmen secreted him and 
finally enabled him to reach New Amsterdam and then 
Europe. 

Radisson soon returned to New France, where he was 
welcomed as one returned from the grave. During the 
next few years he had other thrilling experiences among 
the Iroquois. Then in 1658, the year Oliver Cromwell 
died and more than a score of years before William Penn 
founded Pennsylvania, he set out with his sister's hus- 
band, Sieur des Groseillers, on an expedition beyond the 
Great Lakes. After a narrow escape from the Iroquois 
along the Ottawa they reached Green Bay on the west 
side of Lake Michigan. A war party of Iroquois pene- 
trated even to that remote region, but Radisson led a party 
of warriors and slew the raiders to the last man. Thence 
the explorers penetrated to the Mississippi, ten years be- 
fore Marquette and Joliet reached it, and perhaps even 
to the Missouri, visiting or hearing of strange tribes — the 
Sioux, the Mandans, the Assiniboines, the Crees, and 
others — seeing many wonderful sights, and winning the 
honor, long obscured, of being the first white men to 
penetrate into the Northwest beyond the Great Lakes. 
Finally they returned to Montreal and Quebec with a rich 
cargo of furs. 

Radisson and Groseillers now became eager to find a 



RADISSON AND THE COMPANY 21 

way to the Sea of the North — Hudson Bay — of which 
they had heard vague reports. But New France at this 
time regulated the fur trade by license^ and the corrupt 
governor, D'Avaugour, relused to grant them a Hcense 
unless they would give him half the profits. They re- 
fused, and, slipping away from Three Rivers in the night, 
joined Indians from the Upper Country. Repeatedly 
they had to fight Iroquois war parties along the way, but 
in the autumn they reached Lake Superior, coasted along 
the south shore past the Pictured Rocks, and somewhere 
in the region northwest of the lake " built themselves the 
first fort and the first fur post between the Missouri and 
the North Pole." This was in 1661, and the nearest 
settlement of white men was probably two thousand 
miles away. 

It was impossible for two men to keep watch at nighty 
so Radisson, ever ready in expedients, rigged up a series 
of little bells about the hut, and these bells were fastened 
to strings in such a way that any man or animal running 
against the strings would start the bells to tinkling. Often 
the sleepers were awakened by animals that had run 
against the strings, but luckily the Indians never at- 
tempted to surprise them. 

The Indians, in fact, showed themselves very friendly, 
being eager to trade their furs for guns, knives, beads, 
and other gewgaws dear to the savage heart. Friendly 
relations were established with the Saulteaux, or Ojibwas, 
the Crees, and other tribes. The two explorers spent the 
winter in a great Cree encampment. The hunting proved 
bad, and many of the Indians starved to death. Finally 
some Sioux, who were anxious to trade with the white 
men, brought timely supplies of food. Radisson and his 
partner took back to their post a great store of furs. 



23 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

That summer the explorers traveled northward along 
the rivers with their Cree friends and seem to have reached 
Hudson Bay, though whether or not they did so is a mat- 
ter of dispute. Finally, in the spring of 1663, the two 
returned to the Lake Superior country, and thence made 
their way to Montreal, accompanied by hundreds of their 
Indian friends, bringing many canoe loads of furs. A dif- 
ferent governor now ruled New France, but he caused 
Radisson and Groseillers to be so heavily fined that only 
a pittance was left to show for their efforts. 

Disgusted by this and later mistreatment, the two ex- 
plorers fled to Nova Scotia and thence to Boston. Efforts 
to reach Hudson Bay by sea failed disastrously, but in 
Boston the two Frenchmen, now almost penniless, became 
acquainted with Sir George Cartwright, and this noble- 
man, who had great influence at the English court, per- 
suaded them to go with him to England. They were cap- 
tured on the way by a Dutch cruiser and were landed in 
Spain, but finally reached London. 

The explorers were received by King Charles II and 
were granted a small stipend by him, but war and a great 
plague delayed the fulfilment of vague promises made by 
the court. Sir George Cartwright did what he could for 
them, and finally the famous Prince Rupert become inter- 
ested in their plans. As a dashing youth Rupert had led 
the Royalist cavaliers of Charles II against the Round- 
heads in England's great Civil War, and he was now 
interested in the sea and exploration. Two ships were 
fitted out to go to Hudson Bay. The one bearing Radis- 
son was so badly damaged by a storm that it had to turn 
back, but the other, which carried Groseillers, reached 
Rupert River on James Bay and returned the next year, 
heavily laden with a rich cargo of furs. 



RADISSON AND THE COMPANY 23 

The profits were so great that a group of rich and 
powerful men obtained, in 1670, from the king a royal 
charter for " The Gentlemen Adventurers Trading to 
Hudson's Bay." Thus was formed the famous Hudson's 
Bay Company, now the oldest corporation in the world. 
Prince Rupert was the first governor. The Company 
received a monopoly on all the trade in the Hudson Bay 
region, and their power ultimately was exercised over a 
region as large as Europe. 

For two centuries and a half the Company has con- 
tinued to do business. It has surrendered some of its 
special privileges, but its fur posts still dot the shores of 
rivers and lakes in the Canadian Northland, while it has 
great department stores in the large cities. Its business 
is still immensely profitable, and travelers in Canada 
soon become familiar with its initials on freight packages 
and elsewhere — " H. B. C," which the waggish interpret 
as meaning " Here before Christ." 

The later history of Radisson was a checkered one. 
He lost favor with his English patrons, and returned to 
the service of France and waged war against the Com- 
pany he had helped to found. Then he grew dissatisfied 
again, and once more entered the service of the Company. 
The last years of the old Pathfinder were spent in London 
as a pensioner of the Company. 

In the long series of wars between England and France 
in the century following the founding of the Company 
its posts were often captured by French raiders, but they 
were always retaken or else were restored when peace 
was declared. Sometimes the Company experienced lean 
periods, but, on the whole, it was prosperous and paid 
large dividends to its lucky stockholders. 

The Company established posts at the mouths of the 



24 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Churchill, Nelson, Albany, and Rupert rivers, and else- 
where on the shore of Hudson and James bays, but it 
made no effort to colonize the country, for that would 
have been to defeat its prime object of obtaining furs. 
The wars with France forced the Company to build strong 
forts which, considering the remoteness of the region in 
which they stood, were sometimes of immense size. That 
called Fort Prince of Wales, at the mouth of Churchill 
River, was about three hundred yards square, with walls 
of hammer-dressed stone, thirty feet thick at the bottom 
and twenty at the top, and mounting forty cannon. 
Rarely, if ever, however, did these forts have sufficient 
men to man them. When La Perouse appeared before 
Fort Prince of Wales in 1782 there were not enough 
trained men within to work a single gun, and the com- 
mander, Samuel Hearne, had to surrender the place with- 
out resistance. The French did what they could to de- 
stroy the fort, and it was never again reoccupied. A hun- 
dred and eleven years later a Canadian explorer, J. W. 
Tyrrell, visited the ruins and wrote of them: 

" As La Perouse left the Fort, so did we find it. For 
the most part the walls were still solid, though from be- 
tween their great blocks of granite the mortar was crum- 
bling. The guns, spiked and dismounted, were still to 
be seen lying about on the ramparts and among the fallen 
masonry. In the bastions, all of which were standing, 
were to be seen the remains of walls and magazines, and 
in the centre of the fort stood the walls of the old build- 
ing in which Hearne and his men had lived. The charred 
ends of roof-beams were still attached to its walls, where, 
undecayed, they had rested for the past one hundred and 
eleven years." 

For a century following its establishment the Hudson's 















'7;^/^:f ; 







From drawing made by George Catlin in 183^ 

A Blackfoot Medicine Man 



RADISSON AND THE COMPANY 25 

Bay Company was generally content to trade with the 
Indians who brought furs to its posts on the Bay, and it 
made small effort to extend its operations inland. In 1691- 
92 a man named Henry Kellsey, who was on intimate 
terms with the Indians and had married a squaw, made 
a trip into the interior, but where he actually went is a 
matter of dispute. Half a century later, in 1 754, Anthony 
Hendry ascended Hayes River and other streams and 
finally reached the broad Saskatchewan, where he found 
a small trading post established the previous year by a 
Frenchman named De La Corne, who had come into the 
country by way of the Great Lakes and Lake Winnipeg. 
Hendry traveled westward over the great plains to within 
a short distance of the Rocky Mountains but did not 
actually see them. He did see, however, great bands of 
buffaloes, and helped to kill many of them. On one of 
the hunts two of his Indian comrades were horribly man- 
gled by a savage grizzly bear, and Hendry's is one of the 
first allusions to this mightiest of all North American 
wild beasts. Far out on the plains Hendry paid a visit to 
the Blackfeet and found them in possession of many 
horses, in riding which they made use of hair halters, 
buffalo-skin pads or saddles, and hide stirrups. But 
when he returned to Hudson Bay and said that he had 
seen Indians who rode horses, he was laughed at as a liar. 
Of the interesting and hazardous experiences of another 
man who sought to find out what lay in the far interior 
we shall now proceed to tell in greater detail 



CHAPTER IV 

SAMUEL HEARNE AND HIS SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 

On December 7, 17 71, a small party of Chipewyan Indi- 
ans and one white man emerged from the stone gateway 
of Fort Prince of Wales on the desolate western shore 
of Hudson Bay and, amid a chorus of shouts from the 
garrison and trading clerks, set off westward toward the 
unexplored interior. A deep snow covered the ground, 
and over this the party dragged with their own hands 
their long narrow sledges, for at that time these Indians 
had not yet begun to use dogs for that purpose. There 
were, however, a few dogs with the party, and these car- 
ried heavy loads upon their backs, as did also the hard- 
working squaws. 

The white man was an Englishman named Samuel 
Hearne. Though only twenty-seven, he had already seen 
much of the world. At eleven he had entered the British 
navy and fought in several bloody engagements of what 
we call the French and Indian War, Later he went to 
Hudson Bay as an employee of the great fur Company, 
and for several years was engaged in trading with the wild 
Eskimos up and down the coast north of Churchill River. 
He was now setting off on a most hazardous journey. 

Many years before, when the Comnany's men first vis- 
ited the Bay, they had found the Indians in possession of 
weapons and tools hammered out of native copper. Now 
and then Indians who came to the posts to trade would 
bring a nugget of the metal with them and when ques- 

26 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 27 

tioned about where they had obtained it would reply that 
it came from the shores of a river many weeks' journey 
to the northwest and that there it existed in such abun- 
dance that ships could be laden with it as easily as with 
boulders from a beach. 

Such stories aroused great interest among the white 
men, and repeated efforts were made to find the mines. 
In 1 719, for example, two vessels under command of 
Captain Knight, an old mariner, eighty years of age, 
sailed northward in search of the mine. But both ships 
were cast away on the barren shore of Marble Island 
south of Chesterfield Inlet, and not one of the crew was 
ever seen again. Fifty years elapsed before their fate 
became certainly known through the finding of the bot- 
toms of the ships, and cannon, anchors, and other arti- 
cles belonging to the ill-fated expedition, as well as skele- 
tons of some of the crew. 

In 1760, the home authorities of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany decided to send out some competent person overland 
to search for the copper mine, and Hearne was selected 
for the task. He was now setting out on his third at- 
tempt. Two years before, with two white companions, 
he had started with some of the northern Indians, but 
in a few weeks the Indians grew weary of the journey 
and plundered the white men of most of their possessions. 
After great hardships Hearne and his white companions 
managed to return to the fort. Undaunted, Hearne, as 
soon as it could be arranged, again set out with another 
party of Indians. Again there was trouble with the 
guides, while a high wind blew over and broke the quad- 
rant with which the white man calculated longitude and 
latitude, and he decided to return. After nearly nine 
months of adventurous wandering through the Barren 



28 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Grounds, the explorer again found himself back at the 
fort. 

But on the return trip Hearne had the good fortune 
to fall in with a northern Indian leader named Matonab- 
bee, who was going to the post to trade. In his youth this 
man had lived for several years at the trading post and 
had learned some of the white man's customs, and to 
speak English. He was a man of great size and courage, 
resourceful in times of trial, and more trustworthy than 
the other Indians. 

Matonabbee aided Hearne and listened to his story. 
He pointed out mistakes made in the previous efforts. 
For example, he said that it was a fatal blunder not to 
take any squaws along. " Women," said he, " were made 
for labor; one of them can carry, or haul, as much as 
two men can do. They also pitch our tents, make and 
mend our clothing; and, in fact, there is no such thing 
as traveling any considerable distance, or for any length 
of time, in this country without their assistance. Though 
they do everything;, they are maintained at trifling ex- 
pense; for as they always stand cook, the very licking 
of their fingers in scarce times is sufficient for their sub- 
sistence." 

Matonabbee himself volunteered to conduct Hearne to 
the copper mine, and Hearne gladly accepted the offer. 
After a stay of less than two weeks at the fort the adven- 
turous explorer once more set out on the quest. With 
him he took another quadrant, a supply of ammunition, 
and some articles to trade with the Indians. 

The country through which their way led at first is 
flat and barren, almost destitute of trees, and with hardly 
any game to be found. The Indians always hurried 
through the region as speedily as possible, yet often suf- 






HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 29 

fered bitterly from lack of food. Matonabbee had cached 
a supply of meat at Egg River, to be used on the return 
trip. But when they reached the cache after nine days' 
travel, they found that it had been plundered by other 
Indians. As the supply of food that had been brought 
from the fort was nearly exhausted, they for ten days 
traveled onward across the barren lands in a state of semi- 
starvation. For the last three days of that time they 
did not taste a morsel of anything, " except," says Hearne, 
" pipes of tobacco and a drink of snow water; and as we 
walked daily from morning till night, and were all heavy 
laden, our strength began to fail." 

On the 26th of December the party finally reached a 
patch of woods and saw some caribou, a sort of wild rein- 
deer, four of which they killed. Next morning the meat 
was brought to camp, and the party halted for a feast. 
The Indians " never ceased eating the whole day " ; 
Matonabbee, in fact, consumed so much that he was ill for 
several days. With these Indians it was always either a 
feast or a famine, and the quantity of meat they were 
able to consume was almost incredible. 

In the course of their long trip Hearne's party, in his 
own words, " fasted many times two whole days and 
nights; twice upwards of three days; and once, while at 
She-than-nee, near seven days, during which we tasted 
not a mouthful of anything, except a few cranberries, 
water, scraps of old leather, and burnt bones. On those 
pressing occasions I have frequently seen the Indians ex- 
amine their wardrobes, which consisted chiefly of skin- 
clothing, and consider what part could best be spared; 
sometimes a piece of an old, half-rotten deer skin, and 
at others a pair of old shoes, were sacrificed to alleviate 
extreme hunger." 



30 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Hearne says that in times of famine the Indians of 
the Hudson Bay region were sometimes reduced to the 
desperate expedient of cannibalism. Among some of the 
tribes it was generally believed that when a person had 
once been driven to the necessity of eating human flesh 
he became so fond of it that no one thereafter was safe 
in his company. A weendigo, as one who was known to 
have been guilty of making such a horrible repast was 
called, was always thereafter not only detested but 
shunned; sometimes he was even slain. Hearne relates 
that in the spring of 1775, when building a new station 
at Cumberland House, an Indian came to the post alone 
and without either gun or ammunition. The fact that he 
carefully concealed a bag of provisions led some of the 
Indians at the post to become suspicious, and they exam- 
ined the bag and pronounced the meat in it to be human 
flesh, though in reality it was not so at all. All Hearne 's 
authority was required to prevent the Indians from kill- 
ing " this poor, inoffensive wretch, for no crime but that 
of traveling about two hundred miles by himself, unas- 
sisted by firearms for support in his journey." 

On New Year's Day Hearne's party reached a large 
lake and there found two tents in which two Indian men 
and some of the wives and children of the Indians with 
Hearne had been awaiting the return of their relatives. 
The men had no guns, and the sole dependence for food 
had been fish and what few rabbits could be snared. 
The fish were caught through holes cut in the ice; some 
with hooks but most with nets. 

The Indian nets were chiefly made out of small thongs 
cut from raw caribou hides, though twisted willow bark 
was occasionally used, especially by the more southern 
tribes. The thongs when dry appeared very good, but 






HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 31 

after being soaked in water for a time they would become 
so slippery that when a large fish struck the net the 
hitches would sometimes slip and let the fish escape. 
Furthermore, the nets would soon rot unless frequently 
taken out of the water and dried. 

Setting a net in a river or lake that was frozen over 
was no small task. The Indians must first cut a number 
of holes ten or twelve feet apart and reaching far enough 
to stretch the net to its full length. As the ice was often 
three or four feet in thickness, the cutting of the holes 
required much labor, especially when the fishermen had 
no better tools than chisels of caribou horn. When the 
holes were ready, a line was passed under the ice by 
means of a pole stuck into one of the end holes, and by 
means of two forked sticks this pole was pushed from 
hole to hole until it arrived at the last. The pole was 
then taken out, and the net was made fast to the line 
and was hauled under the ice, a large stone being tied 
to each of the lower corners in order to keep the net 
properly expanded. When it was thought desirable to 
examine the net, it could be pulled from under the ice 
by means of the line. When the fish had been taken out, 
if there had been a catch, the net could easily be pulled 
back into place and secured as before. 

Only in certain spots in lakes and rivers could nets 
be set with any likelihood of success. In country with 
which they were familiar the Indians knew many of these 
spots, and they usually managed to camp close to them. 
Often more fish would be caught than could be used, and 
in such times of plenty the lazy savages would sometimes 
neglect to attend to the nets, with the result that the 
fish would spoil in them. At other times no fish at all, 
or at most very few, would be caught for days and even 



32 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

weeks. More than once starvation and death resulted 
from failure of the fish supply. 

When they made a new net, these Indians would tie a 
number of birds' bills and feet to the head and foot ropes 
and at the four corners would fasten the jaws and toes of 
others. They were so superstitious as to believe that it 
would be useless to set a net unless it was thus equipped. 
The first fish caught in a new net must not be boiled in 
water but must be broiled whole over a fire. The flesh 
was then carefully taken from the bones without dislo- 
cating the joints, after which the skeleton was laid on the 
fire and consumed. Similar ceremonies must be observed 
when trying a new hook for the first time. It was also 
thought essential to conceal charms in the bait in order 
to attract the fish. 

For many days the party traveled leisurely onward. 
Caribou were usually abundant, and sometimes the hunt- 
ers killed many more than could be eaten. The woods 
trended to the southward, and the party moved in that 
direction in order to avoid the open Barren Grounds, 
where there was neither firewood nor much game at that 
season of the year. This route, Matonabbee told Hearne, 
was the best course to follow, but he said that when 
spring advanced the caribou would begin migrating toward 
the Arctic coast and it would then be possible to travel 
northward in a direct line for the Coppermine River. 

The woods in this region were chiefly of spruce, with 
some birch and trembling aspen on the hillsides. Most 
of the trees were dwarfed and ill-shapen, stunted by the 
cold winds from the north. There was also dwarf juniper, 
and here and there, especially around ponds and swamps, 
some willows. 

As the temperature was usually far below zero, fire- 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 33 

wood was absolutely essential. To have ventured out 
upon the treeless barrens in that season would have been 
highly hazardous. But with plenty of wood it was pos- 
sible to keep reasonably comfortable inside the tepees of 
caribou skin. A tepee is, as most readers probably know, 
a sort of conical tent which has a hole left in the top. A 
fire can be kept burning on the ground in the center, and 
the smoke emerges from the orifice at the top. Cooking 
can be done over this fire, and the inmates can sit or 
sleep around it and keep warm, though at times the smoke 
is likely to be troublesome, especially to a person stand- 
ing or sitting up. Of all forms of tents, the tepee is the 
best suited for winter in the wilderness. Unless some 
kind of stove can be taken along, any other form of closed 
tent is, in cold weather, scarcely better than a refrigerator. 
Next to a tepee a tent which is open in front and slopes 
down toward the back is best. A fire can be kept burn- 
ing before it, and the heat will be reflected down upon 
the persons sleeping within. In one respect a shelter 
tent of this sort is superior to a tepee: it is much lighter 
and hence can be more easily carried. 

Early in March, 1772, on the shore of Whooldyah'd 
Whole, or Pike Lake, Hearne's party came upon the en- 
campment of some northern Indians who were obtaining 
subsistence by catching caribou in a pound or inclosure. 
When they built such a pound the Indians would seek out 
a trail on which the caribou were accustomed to travel, 
and would then construct a fence of brushy trees around 
a considerable tract of ground. Hearne says that he saw 
inclosures a mile around and was told there were others 
still more extensive. The entrance to the pound was no 
larger than a common gate, and the inside was crowded 
with a maze of small counter-hedges or fences, in every 



34 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

opening of which strong snares of hides were set. The 
ends of these snares were attached either to growing sap- 
lings or else to loose poles of such a size and length that 
a deer could not drag it far without its becoming entangled 
among stumps or trees. 

When the pound was ready, the Indians would stick a 
row of small brushwood in the snow on either side of the 
door or entrance, and these were continued out on the 
open plain where neither stick nor stump besides was to 
be seen, which made them the more distinctly observed. 
The two lines were ranged in such a way as to form two 
sides of a long acute angle, the apex of which was at the 
entrance of the pound, while the broad opening was often 
two or three miles away. Often a lake or river would be 
used for one side; in fact, the Indians usually sought a 
place where such a natural barrier was available. 

The Indians always pitched their camp on or near some 
hill from which they could keep watch over the path 
leading to the pound. Whenever they saw caribou going 
that way, men, women, and children would make a detour 
till they got behind the game and would then step into 
view and move toward the pound in crescent formation. 
The caribou, believing themselves pursued, would usually 
run straight forward along the path between the rows of 
poles until they entered the pound. The Indians would 
close in and block up the entrance with some brushy 
trees that had been made ready for that purpose. The 
squaws and children would then walk round outside the 
inclosure to prevent the caribou from breaking or jump- 
ing the fence, while the men were engaged in spearing the 
animals caught in the snares and in shooting with bows 
and arrows those that remained loose in the pound. 

In this way the Indians often killed even more game 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 35 

than they could use. Many families would sometimes 
be able to obtain a plentiful supply of food for a whole 
winter without being obliged to move their tents more 
than once or twice during the season. Such an easy 
method of procuring food was, of course, wonderfully 
well adapted to the support of the women and children 
and of the old and the infirm. In fact, the Indians who 
were content to live in this manner rarely experienced 
starving times. It was those who traveled long distances 
to trade their furs at the posts that were most likely to 
suffer serious privations and hardships. 

On the 8th of April the party cam,e to a small lake 
with a long, unpronounceable Indian name. Here they 
remained for about ten days, drying and pounding caribou 
meat and cutting light tepee poles for use on the Barren 
Grounds, where no poles could be found. In the fall 
these poles could also be converted into snowshoe frames. 
Frames for canoes were also made and a store of birch- 
bark collected with which to cover them. The canoes 
themselves would not be made until the party arrived at 
Clowey Lake, many miles distant. At the Theley-aza 
River, a few miles further on, more bark was obtained, 
and a small party was sent ahead to Clowey Lake to 
have a canoe built by the time the main party should 
arrive. 

An Indian baby was born at this place. The mother 
set out the same day, carrying the little creature and a 
considerable load, besides, on her back. The next day 
she had to drag a sledge also, and was often obliged to 
wade knee-deep in water and wet snow. 

Early in May the party arrived at Clowey Lake, which 
lies somewhere to the east of Great Slave Lake, called 
by Hearne Lake Athapuscow. Here some birchbark 



36 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

canoes were put together, but all were small, being only 
twelve or thirteen feet long and capable of carrying only 
two persons, one of whom must lie down on the bottom. 
The canoes were, however, very helpful in crossing rivers 
and lakes and were so light that one could be carried by 
a single man. 

Other Indians had by this time joined the party, and 
it had become a considerable company. One reason for 
the increase in numbers was that the Indians had formed 
a plan to attack and murder the Eskimos, who were said 
to frequent the lower reaches of the Coppermine River. 
With this idea in mind the warriors made themselves 
wooden shields, with which to ward off the Eskimo 
arrows and spears. ]\Iost of the squaws and all of the 
children were left behind at Clowey Lake, and when the 
start was made many of the warriors also decided that 
they preferred to remain safely at that place. 

Three weeks farther northward, on the banks of a little 
river, the party found several Copper Indians, with w^hom 
Matonabbee and others were already acquainted. Hearne 
was the first white man these Indians had ever seen. 

" It was curious," writes the explorer, ••' to see how 
they flocked about me, and expressed as much desire to 
examine me from top to toe, as an European naturalist 
would a nondescript animal. They, however, found and 
pronounced me to be a perfect human being, except in 
the color of my hair and eyes: the former, they said, was 
like the stained hair of a buffalo's tail, and the latter, 
being light, were Hke those of a gull. The whiteness of 
my skin also was, in their opinion, no ornament, as they 
said it resembled meat which had been sodden in water 
till all the blood was extracted. On the whole, I was 
viewed as so great a curiosity in this part of the world 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 37 

that during my stay there, whenever I combed my head, 
some or other of them never failed to ask for the hairs 
that came off, which they carefully wrapped up, saying, 
' When I see you again, you shall again see your hair.' " 

The rest of the women were left at this place, but some 
of the Copper Indians joined the expedition. In passing 
through what were called the Stony Mountains, however, 
the hardships were so great that many of the Indians 
turned back. Several musk-oxen were killed in this re- 
gion, but they proved sc lean that the Indians only took 
some strips of hide for moccasin soles. 

In the middle of July the party finally reached the long- 
sought Coppermine River, which proved to be much 
smaller and more rapid than Hearne had been led to be- 
lieve by the Indians. They were soon joined by four 
Copper Indians, while three spies were sent ahead in 
order to find out whether there were any Eskimos farther 
down the stream. In the afternoon hunters killed several 
musk-oxen and some caribou, and the Indians spent the 
rest of the day and night cutting the meat into strips and 
drying it before the fire. To the white man they explained 
that this was done in order to have a plentiful supply of 
ready-cooked food so that the trip to the river's mouth 
could be made without the need of firing guns or building 
fires that would alarm the Eskimos. 

Two days later, while on their way down the river, the 
party met the returning spies, who reported that they had 
found five tents of Eskimos on the west side of the river. 
They said that the tents were in a place where the task 
of surprising the occupants would be easy. At once the 
Indians put their guns, spears, and wooden shields in 
order for the attack. Each warrior painted on the front 
of his shield some object like the sun or moon or beast 



I 



38 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

of prey, and on inquiring the object Hearne was told that 
each man painted on his shield the image of that being 
on which he relied for aid in the coming battle. All this 
painting was very crudely done, so that, in Hearne's 
words, " most of the paintings had more the appearance 
of a number of accidental blotches, than ' of any thing 
that is on the earth, or in the water under the earth.' " 

Hearne viewed all these preparations with a sinking 
heart. He had repeatedly protested against the bloody 
and inhuman plan, but, says he, " so far were my intreat- 
ies from having the wished-for effect, that it was con- 
cluded I was actuated by cowardice; and they told me, 
with great marks of derision, that I was afraid of the 
Eskimo. As I knew my personal safety depended in a 
great measure on the favourable opinion they entertained 
of me in this respect, I was obliged to change my tone." 
Unable, therefore, to prevent the execution of the plan, 
Hearne accompanied the Indians but played no part in 
the massacre. 

Taking advantage of the lay of the land, the Indians 
managed to approach, unsuspected, to within two hundred 
yards of the Eskimo camp, which lay beneath a bank at 
the foot of a considerable falls. Here the Indians made 
final preparations, painting their faces, tying up their hair 
so that it would not blow in their eyes, and laying aside 
all unnecessary clothing and other impedimenta. By the 
time they were finally ready it was about one o'clock in 
the morning, but in that high latitude, north of the Arctic 
Circle, it was daylight. 

They then rushed forward from their ambuscade, and, 
as the Eskimos were all in their caribou-skin tents, most 
of them doubtless asleep, the Indians reached the very 
eves of the tents before they were perceived. Roused by 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 39 

the bloodthirsty shouts outside, the poor Eskimos, men, 
women, and children to the number of over twenty, came 
rushing out and attempted to escape. The relentless 
Indians at once fell upon them with clubs and spears and 
did not spare a single person. One young girl of about 
eighteen years fell at Hearne's feet and twisted her arms 
about his legs as if to implore for mercy. He begged hard 
for her life, but the savages only said jeeringly that he 
must want an Eskimo woman for a wife, and continued 
to stab the poor creature until she was dead. 

" My situation and the terror of my mind at beholding 
this butchery," writes Hearne, " cannot easily be con- 
ceived, much less described; though I summed up all the 
fortitude I was master of on this occasion, it was with 
difficulty that I could refrain from tears; and I am con- 
fident that my features must have feelingly expressed 
how sincerely I was affected at the barbarous scene I then 
witnessed ; even at this hour I cannot reflect on the trans- 
actions of that horrid day without shedding tears." 

Hardly had the Indians completed their bloody work 
when they noticed seven more Eskimo tents on the other 
side of the river. These tents, fortunately, had hitherto 
been hidden from view by the bluffs of the river. As the 
Indians had left their canoes some distance up the river, 
they had no way of crossing, but the stream was only 
about eighty yards wide, so they began firing at the 
Eskimos. Says Hearne: 

" The poor Esquimaux on the opposite shore, though 
all up in arms, did not attempt to abandon their tents; 
and they were so unacquainted with the nature of fire- 
arms, that when the bullets struck the ground, they ran 
in crowds to see what was sent them, and seemed anxious 
to examine all the pieces of lead which they found flat- 



40 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

tened against the rocks. At length one of the Esquimaux 
men was shot in the calf of the leg, which put them in 
great confusion. They all immediately embarked in their 
little canoes, and paddled to a shoal in the middle of the 
river, which being more than a gunshot from any part 
of the shore, put them out of the reach of our barbarians.'" 

The victors then turned their attention to plundering 
the tents of the dead Eskimos, taking, in particular, the 
copper utensils, such as hatchets, spearheads, and knives, 
after which they gathered on the top of a neighboring 
hill, formed a circle, and, with spears raised high in air, 
gave many yells of victory, varied now and then by deri- 
sive yells at the surviving Eskimos, who were standing on 
the shoal, almost knee-deep in water. 

The Indians then set out up the river, intent upon 
crossing in their canoes and plundering the tents on the 
east shore. At the foot of the falls, which are a sort of 
long cascade with a descent of perhaps fifteen feet, they 
came upon an old Eskimo woman sitting by the river, 
engaged in " killing salmon, which lay at the foot of the 
fall as thick as a shoal of herrings. Whether from the 
noise of the fall, or a natural defect in the old woman's 
hearing, it is hard to determine, but certain it is, she had 
no knowledge of the tragical scene which had been so 
lately transacted at the tents, though she was not more 
than two hundred yards from the place. When we first 
perceived her, she seemed perfectly at ease, and was 
entirely surrounded with the proceeds of her labour." 
The red wolves instantly fell upon the poor creature and 
slew her in a most barbarous manner. '' There was 
scarcely a man among them who had not a thrust at her 
with his spear." 

Some of the Indians then amused themselves catching 




Photograph by the Aiitlur 



A Beaver Dam 




From '■ Franklin's First Journey 

Bloudj' Falls, Coppermine River 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 41 

fish with the implement the murdered woman had been 
using. It was merely a pole armed with a few spikes, 
and the method of using it was to put it under the water 
and haul it up with a jerk. So thick were the fish that a 
single jerk got usually not less than two and sometimes 
three or four. The fish, however, were comparatively 
small, few being larger than six or seven pounds, and 
most of them much lighter. 

The savages did not long remain at the falls but re- 
turned to their canoes, crossed the river, and rushed down 
upon the camp on the east side. Some of the Eskimos, 
thinking their enemies had left for good, had returned to 
the camp. All of them succeeded in escaping except one 
old man. who was so intent on collecting his belongings 
that he was caught and killed. '' I verily believe," says 
Hearne, '' that not less than twenty had a hand in his 
death, as his whole body was like a cullender," The Indi- 
ans then plundered the tents of all the copper utensils, 
which seemed the only objects worth taking, after which 
they threw the tents into the river, destroyed a great 
quantity of dried fish and musk-ox flesh, and broke all 
the stone kettles. 

Thus ended this horrible scene, a scene typical of hun- 
dreds of terrible massacres in the almost constant war- 
fare of tribe upon tribe in the America of that day. For 
more than a century both the Indians and the Eskimos 
remembered the massacre, and it was only in recent years 
that the long feud between them was ended by white in- 
fluence. Hearne named the place Bloody Falls, and so 
it is called to this day. Half a century later Sir John 
Franklin, in his journey across the Barren Grounds to 
the Arctic, found at the falls several human skulls that 
bore the marks of violence and many other bones strewn 



42 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

about on the ground, relics, no doubt, of the massacre of 
the long ago. 

After a meal of fresh salmon, Hearne and some of the 
Indians followed the river some miles until they came to 
where it emptied into the sea. They found the sea at 
the river's mouth to be full of islands and shoals. The 
ice was not broken up but was melted away for about 
three-quarters of a mile from the shore. There were 
no growing trees whatever, and, the moss being wet, when 
the Indians shot a musk-ox they were forced to eat the 
meat raw, " which was intolerable, as it happened to be 
an old beast." The explorer did not linger long on the 
coast, but after erecting a mark and taking possession 
of the coast on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company, he 
set out on the return journey. 

On the way the party visited the Copper Mountains, 
where were located the mines which were the main 
object of Hearne's long journey. These mountains lay 
about thirty miles " south south east " of the river's 
mouth. The Indians had represented at the trading posts 
that the hills were entirely composed of copper, " all in 
handy lumps, like a heap of pebbles," and that ships 
could come up the river from the sea and be ballasted with 
ore, instead of stone, " and that with the same ease and 
dispatch as is done with stone at Churchill River." But 
Hearne had already seen that ships probably could never 
reach the mouth of the river because of the ice, while 
the stream itself in many places was not navigable even 
by canoes. Furthermore, although the party spent four 
hours searching for copper, they found only one piece of 
any size. This weighed about four pounds. It was later 
sent to England, and is still in the possession of the Hud- 
son's Bay Company. 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 43 

Hearne believed, however, that formerly the metal was 
more abundant. In places he saw well-beaten paths made 
many years before by natives seeking the mineral. Prior 
to the establishment of posts on Hudson Bay these north- 
ern Indians had no other metal but copper among them, 
and of necessity they had been more eager to find it. 
Out of it they made hatchets, ice-chisels, knives, awls, 
arrowheads, spearheads, etc. In fact, they still set great 
store by the metal and preferred it to iron for many pur- 
poses. 

The Indians had a strange tradition to the effect that 
the first discoverer of the mines was a squaw, who had a 
reputation as a conjurer. For several years she conducted 
parties thither, but on one such trip, having been badly 
treated by the men, she became so angry that she declared 
she would sit on the mine till she sunk into the ground 
and that all the copper should sink with her. Next year, 
when the Indians came for more copper, they found her 
sunk to the waist, though still alive, and the copper was 
much scarcer. By the following year she had entirely 
disappeared, and thereafter there could be found only a 
few scattered pieces of copper, whereas before it had lain 
about on the ground in great heaps so that no search for 
it had been necessary. 

The homeward journey from the Coppermine River 
took eleven months. On the way Hearne and his party 
visited Great Slave Lake. There and elsewhere they 
caught great numbers of fish, some of the lake trout 
weighing as much as forty pounds. On the south side of 
Great Slave Lake they also found many buffaloes, and 
Hearne's account of these animals is the first mention 
of the northern species of this animal, which is now called 
the wood bison. Strangely enough it is in the region 



44 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

northwest of this lake that the only wild buffaloes now 
remain. 

Hearne says that the bulls seemed to him to be bigger 
than English oxen. " In fact, they are so heavy that 
when six or eight Indians are in company at the skinning 
of a large bull, they never attempt to turn it over while 
entire, but when the upper side is skinned, they cut off 
the leg and shoulder, rip up the belly, take out the intes- 
tines, cut off the head, and make it as light as possible, 
before they turn it to skin the under side. The skin is in 
some places of an incredible thickness, particularly about 
the neck, where it often exceeds an inch. The horns are 
short, black, and almost straight, but very thick at the 
roots or base." 

Hearne did not exaggerate the size of these great beasts. 
In 1 910 I saw at Edmonton the unmounted skin of a bull 
that had been shot by an explorer named Harry Radford, 
who was later murdered by Eskimos in the region of 
Chesterfield Inlet. The beast had weighed almost a ton 
and a half. The hide, even when dry, was almost an 
inch thick, and would have been a heavy load for a pow- 
erful man. 

The latter part of the journey was through country 
inhabited by moose, and Hearne has much to say 
about these great animals, which are the biggest of all 
the deer family. He says that they were the hardest to 
kill of all the game of that region. Their flesh he con- 
sidered good, though somewhat coarse; the tongue and 
the gristle of the nose he pronounces excellent. The skins 
of the moose were much used by the Indians for mocca- 
sins, clothing, and tepee covers. The method employed 
to tan the hides is described as follows: 

" To dress those skins according to the Indian method, 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 45 

a lather is made of the brains and some of the softest fat 
or marrow of the animal, in which the skin is well soaked, 
when it is taken out and not only dried by the heat of 
the fire but hung up in the smoke for several days; it is 
then taken down and well soaked and washed in warm 
water till the grain of the skin is perfectly open and has 
imbibed a sufficient quantity of water, after which it is 
taken and wrung as dry as possible, and then dried by the 
heat of a slow fire; care being taken to rub and stretch 
it as long as any moisture remains in the skin. By this 
simple method, and by scraping them afterwards, some of 
the moose skins are made very delicate both to the eye 
and the touch." 

One day in midwinter when some of the Indians were 
out hunting they saw the track of strange snowshoes and 
on following the trail for some distance they found a 
little hut and in it a comely young squaw, sitting alone. 
They brought her to the tents of the main party, and she 
proved to be of the Western Dogrib Indian tribe. One 
night, two years before, the Athabasca Indians had sur- 
prised the encampment in which she was living, and butch- 
ered every soul except herself, her four-months-old pa- 
poose, and three other young women. She concealed the 
infant in a bundle of clothing and in the darkness it was 
not noticed by her captors, but when the party reached 
the tepees of the victors the Athabasca squaws began to 
examine the bundle and discovered the infant. One of 
them took the child from the mother and barbarously mur- 
dered it on the spot. 

The mother was forced to become the wife of one of 
the victors and was in most respects well treated by him, 
but she was unable to reconcile herself to living with a 
people who had murdered her child and relatives. When 



46 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

a favorable opportunity came, she fled into the wilderness, 
hoping to return to her own people. But she had been 
taken by canoe along so many winding rivers and across 
so many lakes that she had forgotten the homeward way, 
and, therefore, made shift to live alone. 

When she escaped, her only metal implements were five 
or six inches of an iron hoop made into a knife, and an 
iron arrowhead, which she used as an awl. With these 
poor tools she managed, however, to make excellent snow- 
shoes and other useful articles. She also made a hut to 
shelter her from the winter blasts and contrived to kindle 
a fire by knocking together two hard sulphurous stones. 
This method of fire-making was, however, attended with 
great trouble and was not always successful, so she was 
careful not to permit her fire to go out during the whole 
winter. 

With her she had also succeeded in taking a few caribou 
sinews, and these she used in making snares and sewing 
her clothing. She caught many rabbits, grouse, and 
squirrels, and even contrived to kill two or three beavers 
and some porcupines. When discovered she had a small 
stock of provision by her, and had lived so well that she 
was in good health and condition. When the deer sinews 
were exhausted, she supplied their place by twisting to- 
gether with great skill and dexterity the sinews of rab- 
bits. With the skins of the rabbits she had made herself 
a warm and comfortable winter suit. One would naturally 
suppose that a person in her forlorn and dangerous situa- 
tion would have been content to do only the things abso- 
lutely necessary for subsistence, but even in that remote 
wilderness her feminine instinct for beauty and adorn- 
ment had asserted itself. In the words of Hearne: " The 
materials, though rude, were very curiously wrought, and 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 47 

so judiciously placed, as to make the whole of her garb 
have a very pleasing, though rather romantic appear- 
ance." 

Some of her moments of leisure from hunting and 
other work she used in twisting the inner rind or bark 
of willows into small lines, like net twine. She had sev- 
eral hundred fathoms of this by her, and with it she 
intended in the spring to make a fishing net. 

Her appearance was so attractive and her accomplish- 
ments as a worker were so great that a large number of 
her discoverers resolved to have her for a wife. As was 
customary in such cases, a great wrestling match took 
place, with the squaw as the prize to the victor. She was 
actually won and lost by nearly half a score different men 
the same evening. Even Matonabbee, who at this time 
already had eight wives, would have entered the lists had 
not one of his helpmates raised a laugh by telling him 
before the rest that he already had too many. This 
greatly enraged Matonabbee, and he struck and kicked 
the poor girl who dared to speak out thus so hard that 
after lingering for some weeks she died. 

On the homeward way Hearne's party passed through 
much good beaver country, and the Indians spent a great 
deal of time hunting these animals, both for their fur and 
flesh. Hearne gives an extended description of the habits 
of the beaver, a description wholly free of the fanciful 
exaggerations common then, and even now met with. 

" When the beaver which are situated in a small river 
or creek are to be taken," says Hearne, " the Indians 
sometimes find it necessary to stake the river across to 
prevent them from passing; after which they endeavour 
to find out all their holes or places of retreat in the 
banks. This requires much practice and experience to 



48 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

accomplish, and is performed in the following manner: 
Every man being furnished with an ice chisel, lashes it 
to the end of a small staff about four or five feet long; 
he then walks along the edge of the bank and keeps 
knocking his chisel against the ice. Those who are well 
acquainted with that kind of work well know by the 
sound of the ice when they are opposite to any of the 
beavers' holes or vaults. As soon as they suspect any, 
they cut a hole through the ice big enough to admit an 
old beaver, and in this manner proceed until they have 
found out all their places of retreat, or at least as many 
of them as possible. While the principal men are thus 
employed some of the understrappers, and the women, 
are busy breaking open the houses, which at times is no 
easy task; for I have frequently known these houses to 
be five and six feet thick; and one in particular was 
more than eight feet thick on the crown. When the 
beavers find that their habitations are invaded, they fly 
to their holes in the banks for shelter; and on being per- 
ceived by the Indians, which is easily done, by attending 
the motion of the water, they block up the entrance with 
stakes of wood, and then haul the beaver out of its hole, 
either by hand, if they can reach it, or with a large hook 
made for that purpose, which is fastened to the end of a 
long stick." 

Beaver were sought by the Indians both for their skins 
and also for their flesh, which is very rich and greasy. 
Beaver skins were, in fact, the main article of trade, and 
were made the unit of value by the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany. Stamped tokens of metal or leather were generally 
used instead of money; such a token was called a " made 
beaver." An otter skin was said to be worth, not so many 
shillings or pounds, but so many " made beaver." 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 49 

During his long stay in the region about Hudson Bay 
Hearne not only had many opportunities to study the 
beaver in its native habitat but he " kept several of them 
till they became so domesticated as to answer to their 
name, and follow those to whom they were accustomed, 
in the same manner as a dog would do; and they were 
as much pleased at being fondled as any animal I ever 
saw. I had a house built for them, and a small piece of 
water before the door. . . . When the Indians were ab- 
sent for any considerable time, the beaver discovered 
great signs of uneasiness, and on their return shewed equal 
marks of pleasure, by fondling on them, crawling into 
their laps, laying on their backs, sitting erect like a squir- 
rel, and behaving to them like children who see their 
parents but seldom, 

" In general, during the winter they lived on the same 
food as the women did, and were remarkably fond of rice 
and plum pudding: they would eat partridges and fresh 
venison very freely, but I never tried them with fish, 
though I have heard they will at times prey on them. 
In fact, there are few of the granivorous animals that may 
not be brought to be carnivorous. It is well known that 
our domestic poultry will eat animal food: thousands of 
geese that come to London market are fattened on tal- 
low craps; and our horses in Hudson Bay would not only 
eat all kinds of animal food, but also drink freely of the 
wash or pot liquor intended for the hogs. And we are 
assured by the most authentic authors that in Iceland not 
only black cattle, but also the sheep, are almost entirely 
fed on fish and fish bones during the winter season." 

Lest it be supposed that Hearne is " nature faking " in 
these remarks, I will add that even to-day it is so difficult 
to obtain forage at some of the northern Hudson's Bay 



50 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

posts that it is not uncommon to feed cows during the 
winter on dried fish. 

On the last day of June, 1772, Hearne at last reached 
Fort Prince of Wales, after an absence of almost nine- 
teen months. During that time he had lived almost pre- 
cisely the same as the Indians. He says that of all their 
various kinds of food he had partaken of every sort, no 
matter how disgusting, save only lice and the warbles or 
grubs in the backs of caribou. 

His journey had not resulted in the discovery of any 
rich mine of copper, but it had put an end to any linger- 
ing notion that there could be a Northwest Passage by 
sea from the western side of Hudson Bay to the Pacific. 
He wrote an account of his trip, and this was published 
at London, in 1795, under title of A Journey from Prince 
of Wale's Fort, in Hudson Bay, to the Northern Ocean. 
For more than a century this book remained the chief 
source of information regarding a large part of the Bar- 
ren Grounds; even to-day some of the places Hearne 
visited have never been seen by another white man. The 
volume will always remain a classic on the habits and 
customs of the Indians of that region. 

Hearne received from the Hudson's Bay Company a 
reward of two hundred pounds for making the journey, 
and in 1775, after the death of Moses Norton, the half- 
breed governor at Fort Prince of Wales, he became the 
head of that post. Seven years later the fort was cap- 
tured by a French expedition under Admiral La Perouse, 
and Hearne was carried to Europe, but was soon released. 
After peace was made he returned to Hudson Bay for a 
few years. He died in England in 1792, 

A last word should be said regarding the fate of Maton- 
abbee, the forceful and energetic chieftain to whom the 



HEARNE'S SEARCH FOR A COPPER MINE 51 

success of the expedition was largely due. Though hot- 
tempered and a Solomon in the matter of wives, this leader 
displayed great fidelity and resourcefulness on the trip, 
and Hearne pays him a high tribute. He became head of 
all the northern Indians, and for some years, says Hearne, 
" continued to render great services to the Company by 
bringing a greater quantity of furs to their factory at 
Churchill River than any other Indian ever did or ever 
will do." But the news of the capture of the fort broke 
his heart. He never afterwards " reared his head " and 
finally in his despondency hanged himself. In the fol- 
lowing winter six of his wives and four of his children 
died ox starvation. 



CHAPTER y 

M. DE LA VERENDRYE AND HIS SEARCH FOR THE 
WESTERN SEA 

In the period following Pierre Radisson's last overland 
trip Marquette, Joliet, and La Salle explored the Missis- 
sippi, but for seventy years no other man penetrated so 
far beyond the Great Lakes as Radisson had done. Then 
came another bold adventurer who had dreamed a dream. 
His name was Pierre Gaultier de Varennes de la Veren- 
drye, and he was born in 1686 at Three Rivers, Radis- 
son's old home on the St. Lawrence. At fourteen he re- 
solved that he would be a discoverer, but for years he 
fought in the wars in both America and Europe and 
traded in the region of the Great Lakes. Not until he was 
forty-four or forty-five years did he obtain his long- 
sought opportunity. 

While stationed at the lonely fur post of Nepigon, north 
of Lake Superior, he heard from the Indians vague tales 
of a westward flowing river, of a vast plain devoid of 
timber and covered with " large herds of cattle," and an 
old warrior drew upon a strip of birchbark a map of rivers 
flowing into a " Western Sea." On fire to discover the 
way thither, De la Verendrye hurried to Quebec, obtained 
the patronage of the governor of New France, and per- 
suaded merchants to furnish a supply of trade goods for ' 
the venture. 

With half a hundred followers, including his three sons, 
all boys in their teens, he set out in birch-bark canoes 

52 



VERENDRYE'S SEARCH 53 

from Montreal in June, 1731. Seventy-eight days of 
hard labor brought them to Kaministiqua, on the north- 
western shore of Lake Superior, the farthest fur post then 
existing. From there a party, of which the explorer's 
son Jean was a member, pushed on and established Fort 
St. Pierre on the south side of Rainy Lake, and in July 
of the next year De la Verendrye himself reached that 
post. 

There followed four anxious, feverish years. The mer- 
chants at home were discontented with the financial re- 
turns of the venture, and in 1634 the explorer made the 
long journey back to Quebec to encourage them to con- 
tinue to back him. Young Jean de la Verendrye pushed 
on to Lake Winnipeg and on its flat shore built a post 
named Fort Maurepas. The winter of 1735-36 was a 
hard one in these little northwestern posts, and in the 
spring young Jean set out with three canoes manned by 
twenty voyageurs for Mackinac to bring supplies of food 
and ammunition. 

On the way down the Lake of the Woods they were at- 
tacked upon an island by a large war band of Sioux. Not 
one of the white men escaped. Some days later a band 
of friendly Ojibwas found the place of massacre. Around 
the ashes of the campfires lay the mangled bodies of the 
slain. The headless body of young Verendrye had been 
mockingly decorated with porcupine quills. Some of the 
heads of the dead men had been placed upon a beaver 
skin. The body of Father Aulneau, a young missionary 
who had come only recently from France, was on its 
knees, as if. at prayer, with the right arm uplifted as if 
invoking the aid of God. 

De la Verendrye spent the winter of 1737-38 at Que- 
bec, but by the following September he was back in the 



54 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

region of the present Manitoba, and at the junction of 
Red River and the Assiniboine estabHshed Fort Rouge, 
on the present site of Winnipeg. Thence he set out over- 
land with friendly Assiniboines and visited the Mandan 
towns on the Missouri. But he was disappointed in his 
hope of hearing from them any definite information re- 
garding his will-o'-the-wisp, the Western Sea. New posts 
were established by the explorer's sons near Lake Mani- 
toba and on the Saskatchewan, but financial troubles were 
pressing at Montreal, and again the father had to jour- 
ney thither. 

Finally, in the spring of 1742, the two brothers, Pierre 
and Francois, set out with two French followers for the 
Missouri country. At the Mandan towns, after great 
difficulty, they obtained the services of guides, who prom- 
ised to conduct them westward. For weeks they rode 
over the rolling plains, seeing many coyotes, antelopes, 
and prairie dogs, but finding no traces of human exist- 
ence. In fright one of the Mandan guides deserted and 
turned back. In the fifth week the explorers came upon 
a village of Crows, who received them well and furnished 
fresh guides. The Crows passed them on to the Horse 
Indians, and the Horse Indians, in turn, guided them to 
the Bows, who took them with them on a war party 
against the Snakes. 

No Snakes were found, but on New Year's Day, 1743, 
the explorers saw far before them the distant, jagged peaks 
of the Bighorn Mountains, one of the eastern ranges of 
the Rockies. A thousand miles of mountainous wilder- 
ness still lay between them and the Western Sea of their 
father's dreams, but the deed they had done was worth 
while. Half a century passed before any white man went 
beyond their " farthest West." 




From drawing made by George Catlin in 183 

A Mandan Chief 



II 



VERENDRYE'S SEARCH 55 

As for the father himself, he lived six more troubled 
years, harassed by creditors and rival fur traders. Finally, 
in the winter of 1 749, while planning a new quest, he died 
suddenly at Montreal. 

Like many another pioneer his dream had brought him 
only trouble and disaster, but his name and those of his 
heroic sons should be placed high on the roll of those 
daring spirits who have braved danger and discomforts 
to widen the realm of human knowledge. 



CHAPTER VI 

HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 

A RAPACIOUS governor of New France prevented the sons 
of La Verendrye from continuing the work of explora- 
tion and even from trading in the vast region which the 
efforts of the family had made known, but more favored 
traders were permitted to enter in. A considerable com- 
merce in furs developed, and posts were maintained along 
Red River, Assiniboine River, Lake Winnipeg, and the 
lower Saskatchewan. Minor explorers also made some 
additions to geographical information. 

The conquest of New France by the British in the 
French and Indian War, and Pontiac's uprising, which 
soon followed, put a stop for a time to trading operations 
from Canada to the far Northwest. The Indians of that 
region were forced to do without European goods or to 
send their furs to the Hudson's Bay Company's posts on 
Hudson Bay. But, about 1765, adventurous English 
traders began to push westward from Mackinac beyond 
Lake Superior, and the great profits they realized quickly 
caused imitation. One of the most notable of these early 
English traders was Alexander Henry, the elder, who 
spent many years in the region in question and left a book 
of Travels, in which he graphically describes some of 
his experiences. 

Hitherto, as already stated, the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany had remained content to carry on its trade from 
posts on the shores of the great inland sea from which it 

56 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 57 

derived its name. Thither came the Indians with their 
peltries, and the tribes that resided near at hand acted 
as middlemen for other tribes that were more remote. 
Under this system it was not necessary for the traders 
to venture far from their comfortable posts, and they 
were spared many of the hardships and dangers experi- 
enced by their successors. 

The officials of the Hudson's Bay Company regarded 
the traders who entered by way of the Great Lakes as 
interlopers and spoke of them contemptuously as '' ped- 
lars." But the pedlars were keen business men and by 
carrying their goods right to the Indians they soon greatly 
diminished the number of aborigines who made the long 
journey to the Bay to trade. In consequence the old 
Company either had to sit and see its once lucrative 
commerce disappear, or adopt new methods. The latter 
course was followed. Agents were sent up the Hayes, 
Albany, York, and other rivers, and new posts were estab- 
lished in the interior. Of these one of the most important 
was Cumberland House, which was built by our old friend 
Hearne on the lower Saskatchewan, two years after his 
return from the Copi)evrmine. The goods for these posts 
were sent in by way of Hudson Bay. 

So great a scramble for the trade of the riains Indians 
soon developed that there were scanty profits for any of 
the traders. Furthermore, the smallpox got among the 
Indians and " destroyed by its pestilential breath whole 
families and tribes." Feeling the need of nuitual co- 
operation, some of the traders from Canada unitetl their 
interests and formed, in the winter of i7t)^^()4, the North- 
west Company, a concern that for years fought a bitter 
battle with the Hudson's Bay Company. 

Most of the adventures in the service of the North- 



58 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

west Company were men of limited ideas, with ambitions 
that rarely rose above a beaver skin; but now and then 
we meet with a man of higher type. Such an one was 
Alexander Mackenzie, who, in 1789, was chief trader at 
Fort Chipewyan, a post that had been established on the 
southwest shore of Lake Athabasca, seventy days' travel 
from Lake Superior. 

Mackenzie was a native of Scotland and was then not 
yet thirty years old. He had served an apprenticeship 
of five years in a Montreal counting-house, had spent 
another year in the pine woods of Michigan trading with 
the Indians, and had then been sent by the Northwest 
Company to the Northwest. Big and strong of body, 
bold and adventurous, a man undaunted by obstacles, 
the unexplored regions that lay to the north and west of 
him were a resistless challenge to his ambitious spirit. 
And, first of all, he was eager to find out what became of 
the river that gave outlet to the great lake on which 
he was stationed. As soon as possible he organized an 
expedition to solve the riddle. 

At nine o'clock on the morning of June 3, 1789 — a time 
when American statesmen were drafting the Constitution 
of the United States — the party set out on its dangerous 
quest. Mackenzie himself rode in a big canoe, the crew 
of which consisted of a German and four French Cana- 
dians, two of whom were accompanied by their Indian 
wives, who would be useful as cooks and to make mocca- 
sins. In a small canoe was a Chipewyan Indian who went 
by the name of " English Chief," and his two wives. In 
a second small canoe were two young warriors. Macken- 
zie was taking these Indians to serve in the twofold ca- 
pacity of hunters and interpreters. A second large canoe, 
in charge of M. Le Roux, one of the Company's clerks, 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 59 

carried some of the baggage for the main expedition, and 
also a supply of trading goods; it was the intention that 
this canoe should part company with the rest early in the 
voyage and trade with the Indians about Great Slave 
Lake. 

After going twenty-one miles upon the open lake the 
party entered one of the outlets, of which there were 
several, and seven miles down this stream the party 
landed to camp for the night. While the squaws and 
part of the men pitched the skin lodges and made camp, 
others dragged out the big canoe upon the beach and 
smeared hot spruce gum over the seams in order to stop 
the leaks. This is a task of which we find frequent men- 
tion in the diaries of voyageurs traveling in bark canoes, 
for the " birchbark," though glorified in song and story, 
had many weaknesses. 

While these various tasks were going forward one of 
the hunters, with his flintlock gun loaded with large shot, 
was fortunate enough to kill a wild goose and a couple of 
ducks. No opportunity thus to eke out the larder was 
ever lost. With them the party carried a supply of food, 
chiefly pemmican, which was composed of dried buffalo 
meat pounded up and mixed with fat, but Mackenzie was 
well aware that the supply would become exhausted long 
before he reached his goal, unless most of the livelihood 
could be picked up along the way. 

On the second day the voyageurs passed the mouth of 
the mighty Peace River, up whose mile-wide stream Mac- 
kenzie gazed with longing eyes. The next few days were 
spent in descending Slave River, as the stream that con- 
nects Lake Athabasca and Great Slave Lake is called, and 
much trouble was experienced in carrying round the many 
bad rapids which abound in this stream. This region 



6o TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

was already known to the white men, and three years 
before five men of a trading party had been drowned 
while trying to run one of these rapids with a cargo of 
goods. Mackenzie's party did not succeed in getting by 
this stretch of bad water without experiencing some loss. 
A squaw who was managing one of the smaller canoes in 
one of the rapids lost control of the craft; she left it and 
reached the shore, wet but safe; the canoe was carried 
over the falls and was dashed to pieces. During these 
days the hunters killed a number of ducks and geese and 
four beavers, the fat flesh of the last being very much 
esteemed by the aboriginal palate. 

On June 9th the expedition reached Great Slave Lake, 
which they found to be still almost entirely covered with 
ice. Nets were set in the lake and yielded many " carp," 
whitefish, pike, lake trout, and " inconnu " ; the last word 
means " unknown," and was applied to this fish by early 
voyageurs, who were unable to classify it. It is said to 
be found only in the Mackenzie River region, and even 
to-day there is difference of opinion as to what family it 
is a member of. It is long and thin, somewhat like a 
badly formed salmon, and reaches large size, but its flesh 
is flabby and forms poor eating, so that it is not used 
except in hard times. Many wild fowl, including several 
swans, were killed along the lake, and some dozens of 
swan, goose, and duck eggs were found, which lent a 
pleasing variety to the monotonous diet. 

Warm weather and a succession of heavy rains melted 
the ice to such an extent that on June isth the exepdition 
ventured to resume the voyage, and at half-past eleven 
in the evening landed on a small island. They were so 
far north that even at that late hour Mackenzie could 
see to read and write without the aid of artificial light. 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 6i 

Even at midnight it was so light that since the second day 
after leaving Lake Athabasca they had not seen a single 
star. About twelve o'clock the moon rose above the tops 
of the trees, the lower horn being in a state of eclipse, 
which continued for about six minutes. 

The explorers were much delayed by ice and heavy 
winds, but luckily caught many fish, and killed wild fowl 
and a number of caribou, which Mackenzie calls " rein- 
deer." On the twenty-third they came upon some lodges 
of Indians, whom Mackenzie calls " Red Knives " (Yel- 
low Knives of to-day), from the color of their copper 
knives. These Indians knew of white men, and had many 
fine marten and beaver skins for sale. Mackenzie pre- 
vailed upon one of them to accompany him as a guide, 
and also bought a large canoe for the use of the guide 
and the two young Indians who were already in his serv- 
ice. Le Roux's trading party here said good-by to the 
explorers. 

Great Slave Lake has many long arms, and even the 
Indian guide was at first unable to find the outlet, where- 
upon the " English Chief " became greatly enraged and 
threatened to kill him. At last, however, he found the 
exit, a river a mile wide, and down this the flotilla steered. 
The explorers were now fairly launched into the Un- 
known, for no white man had ever before been upon this 
stream. It was, of course, the Mackenzie River of to-day. 

In a day or two they passed beyond the farthest point 
where their guide had ever been. What would they find 
ahead? What reception would be given them by the 
natives farther down? All was uncertain. That there 
were Indians ahead there could be little doubt. One day 
they picked up a white goose that had lately been shot 
by an arrow and was still quite fresh. The old wild fowl 



62 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

were now moulting and were unable to fly; one day the 
Indians ran down and caught five swans and the same 
number of geese. Such chases were very fatiguing, but 
they saved ammunition and helped to keep the pots filled 
with meat. 

For days the explorers drifted down the great river, 
killing some game and expecting momentarily to reach 
rapids or falls, but never doing so. At one place they 
passed a range of mountains to westward, high enough to 
bear, at that season of the vear. small patches of snow. 
In many places along the shores they perceived old Indian 
encampments but it was not until the 5;th of July that they 
actually saw any Indians. As they drew near the camp 
the natives displayed great alarm, some running; about in 
great confusion, others fleeing to the woods, and yet oth- 
ers hurrying to their canoes. Mackenzie and his Indian 
hunters landed and shouted messages of peace in the 
Chipewyan tongue to those who remained, but such was 
the confusion and terror of the natives that, although 
they understood that language, some time elapsed before 
they seemed to comprehend. Finally their fears were 
allayed, and they hastened to call their fugitive compan- 
ions from their hiding-places. 

The encampment consisted of five families of Slave 
and Dogrib Indians. " We made them smoke," says Mac- 
kenzie, "though it was evident they did not know the 
use of tobacco; we likewise supplied them with grosr: but 
I am disposed to think that they accepted our civilities 
rather from fear than inclination. We acquired a more 
effectual influence over them by the distribution of knives, 
beads, awls, rings, gartering, fire-steels, flints, and hatch- 
ets; so that they became more familiar even than we 
expected, for we could not keep them out of our tents: 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 63 

though I did not observe that they attempted to purloin 
any thing." 

These natives gave a discouraging account of the river 
ahead. They told Mackenzie that it would require sev- 
eral winters for him to reach the sea and that his party 
would be old and gray-haired before they could return. 
Furthermore, they would meet with horrid and dangerous 
monsters and would come upon two impassable falls. 
Mackenzie himself placed no faith in these stories, but 
they had a marked effect upon his Indian followers, who 
were already tired of the voyage and wished to turn back. 

By the offer of a small kettle, an axe, a knife, and other 
small articles — which meant fabulous wealth in that coun- 
try — Mackenzie persuaded one of the natives to accom- 
pany him. Evidently the new guide considered the trip 
a dangerous one, for he prepared for it with great formal- 
ity. Among other things, he cut off a lock of his hair, 
divided it into three parts, and fastened one of each to 
the hair of his wife and to that of each of his two chil- 
dren. Having done so, he blew upon the locks three 
times with all his power, meanwhile chanting certain 
words. The reason for this ceremony Mackenzie was 
unable to ascertain. 

Mackenzie thought these natives to be lean, ugly, ill- 
made people. Most were unhealthy, which he attributed 
to their filthy habits. They were of moderate stature, 
and he says that " as far as could be discovered, through 
the coat of dirt and grease that covers them," they ap- 
peared to be fairer in complexion than most Indians far- 
ther south. Some of the old men wore beards, while oth- 
ers had pulled out by the roots the hairs on their faces. 
The men had two double lines, either black or blue, tat- 
tooed upon each cheek from the ear to the nose. The 



64 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

gristle of the nose was perforated so as to admit a goose 
quill or a piece or wood being stuck through the hole. 
Their clothing was mostly composed of dressed moose or 
caribou skins, decorated in some cases with porcupine 
quills. Some also wore bracelets and necklaces made of 
horn, bone, or leather. Around their heads they wore 
bands of leather garnished with porcupine quills and stuck 
round with bears' claws or other ornaments, and having 
suspended a few short thongs of ermine skin. 

Their lodges were made of poles and bark. They had 
a few dishes made of wood, bark, or horn; their cooking 
vessels were made of spruce roots so closely woven as to 
hold water. When they wished to cook their food, they 
put it and water into these vessels and then made the 
water boil by cutting a succession of hot stones into it. 
They made fish nets out of willow bark, and for hunting 
purposes used bows and arrows and spears tipped with 
bone. Their axes were of stone. They made much use 
of snares in catching caribou, moose, and smaller game. 
Fire they kindled by striking together a piece of pyrites 
and a flint stone over a piece of touchwood. Though they 
had never before seen white men, they had some pieces of 
iron, which they had obtained from the Red Knives and 
Chipewyans. 

The new guide soon sickened of the journey, and it 
became necessary to watch him at night to prevent his 
deserting and even to force him to embark. On the first 
day that he accompanied the party they passed the out- 
let of Great Bear Lake. Several times they saw other 
small parties of Indians, from whom they obtained fish, 
rabbits, and other food. At one of these camps another 
Indian agreed to go as a guide, so the other was per- 
mitted to return. The volunteer speedily regretted his 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 65 

offer and wished to back out but was compelled to em- 
bark. However, a night or two later he managed to 
escape during a rainstorm. From another encampment 
another guide was forced to take the place of the fugitive. 

On July nth, being then north of the Arctic Circle, 
Mackenzie sat up all night to observe the " Midnight 
Sun." At half-past twelve he awoke one of the men to 
view a spectacle he had never before witnessed. On see- 
ing the sun well up in the sky, the fellow thought that 
it was time to embark and began to call the rest of the 
party. Mackenzie could hardly convince him that the 
sun had not set at all. 

For some time the guides and the other Indians of the 
region had been warning the explorers that they would 
isoon meet the Eskimos, whom they repiresented to be 
fierce and bloodthirsty. From time to come they passed 
old encampments of these people, and around them saw 
pieces of whalebone, old sledge runners, the bones of 
white bears, and at one place a square kettle that had 
been hollowed out of a stone. The skulls of some pe- 
culiar animals also aroused their curiosity; Mackenzie 
supposed them to be heads of the seahorse. 

The ground in this region was found to be still frozen 
only a few inches below the surface. Trees had almost 
completely disappeared, and those seen were gnarly 
dwarfs, hardly more than bushes. The river separated 
into a number of meandering courses, and the explorers 
could only guess which one they had best follow. 

On July 1 2 th the canoes entered what the explorers 
thought was a lake. The water was exceedingly shallow, 
varying in depth from one to five feet. After going sev- 
eral miles, however, they came in sight of a great ice 
barrier which appeared to bar their further progress. 



66 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

That night the water rose so much that some of the 
voyageurs had to get up and move the baggage higher up 
the shore to prevent it from being wetted and carried 
away. The explorers at first attributed this rise to the 
action of a strong northwest wind. 

Next morning one of the men perceived what at first 
he supposed were pieces of ice in the water, but the 
manner in which they moved led him to think they must 
be animals of some sort. Mackenzie was awakened and 
at once pronounced them to be whales. The canoe was 
hurriedly got ready, and the party embarked in pursuit. 
But foggy weather brought an end to what Mackenzie 
admits was " a very wild and unreflecting enterprise." 
" It was," says he, " a very fortunate circumstance that 
we failed in our attempt to overtake them, as a stroke 
from the tail of one of these enormous fish would have 
dashed the canoe to pieces." 

That night the water again rose under their baggage, 
and it finally dawned upon the explorers that the rise 
was caused by the tide, and that their " lake " was the 
sea. They had, in fact, reached the Arctic Ocean and 
the end of their outward journey. 

Mackenzie strongly wished to find some Eskimos, but, 
though many comparatively fresh tracks were seen, the 
natives themselves had evidently gone elsewhere. A pole 
was set up on which Mackenzie engraved the latitude, 
his own name, and the number of persons in his party. 

On the 1 6th the party set out on the return. It had 
taken them six weeks, traveling with the current, to reach 
the Arctic. The homeward journey occupied eight weeks, 
for they had to fight the current and in many places to 
" track " the canoes with towing lines. They saw more 
Indians than on the downward trip, and had some amus- 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE ARCTIC 67 

ing experiences with some of them. One evening they 
pitched their lodges near an Indian camp, and the hungry 
Indian dogs persisted in getting into Mackenzie's baggage 
in search of food. Mackenzie remonstrated with the na- 
tives, but without effect, and finally shot one of the 
offending canines dead with his pistol. When the Indians 
heard the report and saw the dog dead, they were seized 
with terror. The squaws at once grabbed up their chil- 
dren and fled to the woods. However, Mackenzie finally 
succeeded in convincing the Indians that he would do 
them no injury, and the fugitives returned to camp. 
With tears and loud lamentations the squaw to whom the 
dog belonged declared that the loss of five children the 
previous winter had not affected her so much as the 
death of her pet. " But her grief," says Mackenzie, " was 
not of very long duration; and a few beads, etc., soon 
assuaged her sorrow." 

In the afternoon of September 12 th, running before 
a favorable wind, the explorers finally came in sight once 
more of Fort Chipewyan and soon reached that place. 
They had been absent one hundred and two days. 

Thus ended one of the most notable exploring expedi- 
tions in the history of American travel. A vast new 
region was made known to the civilized world, and it 
soon became a field for fur trading. It was only just that 
the mighty stream which the intrepid explorer had traced 
at the expense of so much effort and danger should 
thenceforth be known as Mackenzie River, 



CHAPTER VII 

HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 

Before 1793 no white man had ever crossed the North 
American continent north of Mexico. A few daring men 
had ventured as far westward as the Rocky Mountains, 
and a few mariners Hke Cook and Bering had sailed 
along the coast of what is now Oregon, British Colum- 
bia, and Alaska, but no man had ever made the long 
and hazardous journey from sea to sea. This was a feat 
which the intrepid Mackenzie next undertook to per- 
form. 

In the spring following his trip to the Arctic, Mac- 
kenzie made the long journey to Lake Superior to the 
headquarters of the Northwest Company, only to find 
that the partners, whose sordid souls did not rise above 
beaver skins, were little interested in his discovery. 
Disappointed at their indifference^ Mackenzie returned to 
Fort Chipewyan, but did not give up a new idea that had 
entered his busy brain. From stories told by the Indians 
and from his knowledge of geography he had become 
convinced that it would be possible to reach the Pacific 
by crossing the mountains to westward, and he deter- 
mined to attempt the feat. Feeling himself deficient in 
the sciences of astronomy and navigation, he made the 
long journey to England in order to perfect himself in 
these subjects and also to obtain instruments and books. 
There he heard much of the voyages of Cook, Vancouver, 
Meares, and others and of the rivalry of Russia, Spain, 

68 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 69 

and England for the northwest coast, and these things 
fired his ambition. 

His plan was to ascend Peace River, the mighty stream 
whose mouth he had passed on the journey to the Arctic. 
On October 10, 1792, he left Fort Chipewyan with two 
canoes, and two days later reached Peace River. As he 
explains, the name of this stream does not arise from any 
special quietness, but is derived from the fact that the 
Knisteneaux and Beaver Indians once met on its banks 
to arrange a treaty of peace. 

For hundreds of miles, however, the lower Peace River 
is navigable except at one place, namely the Chutes, a 
fall about twenty feet high, round which Mackenzie's 
party made a portage. The shores along this part of the 
river are usually low; farther up they rise higher and 
higher. 

On October 20th Mackenzie reached a trading post 
that had already been established by his Company. The 
weather was cold, and the explorer feared that the freeze- 
up was at hand, but, hurrying onward, he reached on 
November ist the spot where he had arranged to pass 
the winter. This spot lay a few miles above the mouth 
of what is known as Smoky River and the present village 
of Peace River Landing. Two men had been sent ahead 
to this place the preceding spring, and with timbers these 
men had cut the party erected six log cabins and sur- 
rounded them with a stockade one hundred and twenty 
feet square. 

It was usual in those days to build such stockades as 
protection against the Indians. The Indians at this place 
were a branch of the Chipewyans, but Beaver Indians 
from further up the stream often visited the post. Mac- 
kenzie engaged some of them to hunt for him, gave them 



70 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

presents, cured one of their warriors whose thumb had 
been blown off by the bursting of a gun, and in general 
managed to keep on good terms with them. Among them- 
selves, however, the Indians had many quarrels and 
fights. Thus on February 5th an Indian named White 
Partridge was stabbed to death by another warrior, the 
cause being jealousy over a woman. On another occasion 
two braves drew their knives and were about to engage 
in a carving match, but Mackenzie intervened and drove 
them out of the house into the snow, where they stood 
" for at least half an hour, looking at each other with a 
most vindictive aspect, and in sullen silence." 

The quarrel in this instance arose out of a gambling 
game called " the platter," of which many of these west- 
ern Indians were extremely fond. It was played with a 
platter 'or dish of wood or bark and with six round or 
square but flat pieces of metal, wood, or stone, whose 
sides were painted different colors. 

Mackenzie notes that these Indians had some curious 
customs connected with the death of friends or relatives. 
Those most closely related to the departed would blacken 
their faces and sometimes cut off their hair; some would 
pierce their arms with knives or arrows. The squaws 
would not only cut their hair and weep but would am- 
putate the first joint of one of their fingers. Mackenzie 
saw old squaws who had repeated this ceremony so often 
that they had not a complete finger remaining on either 
hand. 

It was also customary to throw away or destroy every 
article belonging to the dead person except what was 
consigned to the grave with him. As many of the In- 
dians were in debt to the traders, this custom often re- 
sulted in considerable losses to the white men. Mac- 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 71 

kenzie sought to convince the Indians that the debts of 
the dead man ought first to be paid out of any furs he 
left behind him. 

Peace River became clear of ice on the 25th of April, 
an earlier date than usual with that stream. Two weeks 
later Mackenzie sent off six canoe loads of furs, and, the 
business for the year being done, he was ready for his 
voyage of exploration. For this purpose he had built a 
new birchbark canoe about thirty feet long and four feet 
nine inches wide, yet so light that two men could carry 
her on a good road for three or four miles without 
resting. 

On May 9th the trip began. In the canoe, besides 
Mackenzie himself, went nine persons, including a Scotch- 
man named Alexander Mackay, two Indians, and two 
French Canadians who had accompanied the explorer on 
the trip to the Arctic. The baggage amounted to three 
thousand pounds, and included arms, ammunition, pem- 
mican, and goods suitable to trade with or give to the 
Indians who might be met along the way. 

For many days the route lay along streams with which 
I am myself familiar. For two hundred and forty miles 
Peace River, though often so swift as to necessitate poling 
or tracking in ascending it, presents no serious obstacles 
to navigation. The stream runs in a deep cleft or trough, 
and on both sides high plateaus rise up. Even Macken- 
zie, who was usually very staid, waxed enthusiastic over 
the view. 

" The west side of the river," says he, " displayed a 
succession of the most beautiful scenery I had ever 
beheld. The ground rises at intervals to a considerable 
height, and stretching inwards to a considerable distance : 
at every interval or pause in the rise there is a very 



72 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

gently-ascending space or lawn, which is alternate with 
abrupt precipices to the summit of the whole, or at least 
as far as the eye could distinguish. This magnificent 
theater of nature has all the decorations which the trees 
and animals of the country can afford it: groves of pop- 
lars in every shape vary the scene; and their intervals 
are enlivened with vast herds of elks and buffaloes: the 
former choosing the steeps and uplands, and the latter 
preferring the plains. At this time the buffaloes were 
attended with their young ones, who were frisking about 
them; and it appeared that the elks would soon exhibit 
the same enlivening circumstance. The whole country 
displayed an exuberant verdure; the trees that blossom 
were advancing fast to that delightful appearance, and 
the velvet rind of their branches, reflecting the oblique 
rays of a rising or setting sun, added a splendid gaiety 
to the scene, which no expressions of mine are qualified 
to describe. The east side of the river consists of a range 
of high land covered with the white spruce and the soft 
birch, while the banks abound with the alder and the 
willow." 

From the above description it is clear that even in 
Mackenzie's day the country on the opposite sides of 
Peace River exhibited much the same differences that now 
impress the traveler. From the Rocky Mountains for 
hundreds of miles eastward the south bank (correspond- 
ing to the "east" bank of Mackenzie; for the moment 
he was traveling nearly south) is much more heavily 
wooded than the north bank, which is very parklike with 
alternate patches of trees and open prairie. Various 
theories have been offered to explain the difference. When 
I was descending the stream in 191 6, a surveyor who was 
with me attributed the difference to the fact that the 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 73 

north bank, being the one on which the sun shines, is 
the warmer and hence the bank on which most travelers 
pitch their camps; from this circumstance he argued that 
naturally there would be more forest fires on that bank 
and that these fires made the country on the north bank 
more open. Probably there is something in this explana- 
tion, but it should be added that the south slopes in 
that country, being drier, burn over more readily than 
the north slopes, which, being shaded from the sun, re- 
main much damper. Many times in British Columbia 
and Alberta I have seen mountains on which the forests 
on the south slope had been completely burned while on 
the north side the trees remained vigorous and untouched. 

On this part of the journey the party easily killed 
enough elk and buffaloes for their subsistence. On the 
bars of the rivers they frequently saw the tracks of 
enormous bears. Some of these tracks were ^^ nine inches 
wide and of a proportionate length." On an island they 
discovered the den or winter quarters of one of the 
monsters — a hole ten feet deep, five feet high, and six feet 
wide. The Indians called this bear the " grizzly " and 
were never willing to attack it unless in a party of at 
least three or four warriors. 

From a hunting party of Indians he met along the 
way Mackenzie learned that at the first range of the 
mountains there was a succession of rapids, cascades, and 
falls which the Indians never attempted to ascend. This 
obstacle was, in fact, the Great Canyon of Peace River, 
where the stream for over a score of miles plunges be- 
tween rocky walls and forms one of the wildest stretches 
of water in the world. No man has ever passed through 
this canyon alive, and no one ever will do so. 

The Indians were accustomed to carry around the 



74 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

canyon and had a trail for that purpose. As I have on 
two different occasions made the walk over this trail in 
about four hours' time, I can testify that there are no 
tremendous difficulties to be surmounted. But Mac- 
kenzie made the mistake of not leaving the river when 
he came to the lower end of the trail and persisted in 
following the river. For two days they waged a des- 
perate battle against rapids, and frequently were at the 
edge of disaster. Once a heavy swell struck the canoe 
with such force that the towing line was broken, and 
for a moment it appeared impossible that she could 
escape being dashed to pieces and those on board her 
from perishing. But another swell drove her out of the 
tumbling white water so that the crew were able to bring 
her to shore. The men were so alarmed by this adven- 
ture and by the state of the river ahead, which as far 
as could be seen was one white sheet of foaming water, 
that they began to mutter that there was no alternative 
save to turn back. Mackenzie realized that it would be 
imprudent to ask them to go farther that day, so he 
told them to make camp while he and one of the In- 
dians went ahead to reconnoiter. But as far as he went 
he could see no end to the rapids and cascades. The 
river contracted to a width of no more than fifty yards, 
while the high rocky cliffs actually overhung the stream. 
From these cliffs huge fragments had tumbled down and 
had been dashed into small stones with sharp points, 
which formed the beach, where there was a beach. 

Mackenzie realized that it would be hopeless to try 
to ascend farther by water, so the next day he sent four 
white men and two Indians to pick out a route around 
the obstacle. At sunset they returned with the word that 
they had reached the river above the canyon. Next 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 75 

morning the explorers began the portage. The banks of 
the river were so steep and high that it was necessary to 
fell trees so that they formed a sort of railing on either 
side of the ascent. In getting the canoe up a rope was 
used. Men were sent ahead to cut a trail through the 
woods, and the next day Mackenzie himself aided the 
trail cutters. Three toilsome days were consumed in 
making the portage, but at last^ the laborious task was 
ended, and the party came out upon the river bank a 
little distance above the entrance to the canyon. 

Two hundred yards further downstream the river 
" rushed with an astonishing but silent velocity, between 
perpendicular rockS; which are not more than thirty- 
five yards asunder; when the water is high, it runs over 
those rocks in a channel three times that breadth, where 
it is bounded by far more elevated precipices. In the 
former are deep round holes, some of which are full of 
water, while others are empty, in whose bottoms are small 
round stones, as smooth as marble. Some of these 
natural cylinders would contain two hundred gallons." 
More than a century after Mackenzie passed, I myself 
stood at this spot and saw some of these interesting 
" pot holes." 

Peace River is the only stream except the Liard far- 
ther north that cuts right through the mighty barrier wall 
of the Rockies. From the canyon westward the moun- 
tains gradually rise higher until they merge in the main 
ranges. The river flows through a deep cleft, and on 
either side tall peaks tower right up from the water's 
edge to the region of perpetual snow. From either side 
raging torrents come dashing over great rocks into the 
main river. Altogether the region is one of the grandest 
in all America. One would expect the river to be one 



76 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

constant succession of cascades and falls utterly impos- 
sible of navigation. In reality, there are only two con- 
siderable rapids, one near the eastern edge of the main 
range and the other near the western edge, and it is pos- 
sible, in favorable water, to track a canoe up or down 
either without removing the craft from the water. The 
current is, however, swift, especially during high water 
in the spring and early summer, and Mackenzie's party 
spent a week of laborious effort in passing through the 
mountains, whose mighty cliffs they viewed with awe. 

On the last day of May they finally emerged from the 
mountains and reached a point where the river forked. 
One stream, the larger one, came in from the northwest, 
while the other came from the south. Mackenzie's in- 
clination would have been to follow the former^ but the 
previous winter an old Indian who had visited the 
region with a war party had told him that he must take 
the southern branch, which, he said, would bring him 
to a spot where a short portage would enable him to 
embark on another river. This last stream, Mackenzie 
hoped, would be found to empty into the Pacific. Against 
the wishes of his men, therefore, Mackenzie ordered the 
prow of the canoe to be turned up the southern branch, 
or what is now known as Parsnip River. It was fortu- 
nate he made this decision. Had he elected instead to 
ascend the other, which is now known as Finlay River, 
he would not have reached his goal. I have twice 
ascended this river. It contains many obstacles to navi- 
gation and heads in a savage wilderness of mountains 
hundreds of miles from the Pacific. 

The Parsnip was in flood from the melting of the snow 
in the mountains, and, of course, the task of ascending 
it, never easy, was doubly difficult. In places the ex- 




Pliotograph by the Author 

Entrance to Peace River Canyon 




Photoiirafh by the .\uth. 

Peace River in the Heart of the Rockies 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 77 

plorers could neither walk along the bank wtih their tow- 
ing line nor find bottom for their poles and were obliged 
to pull the canoe upstream by grasping the limbs of trees. 
On the morning of the fifth day on this river Mackenzie, 
Mackay, and the two Indian hunters left the canoe to 
proceed without them while they climbed a mountain on 
the east bank in the hope of obtaining a view of the in- 
terior. The canoe was to proceed with all possible dili- 
gence, and Mackenzie and his party were to follow along 
the shore. After reaching the summit Mackenzie found 
the view so obstructed by thick woods that he could see 
little until he climlbed to the top of a tall tree. Thence 
he could' see two long snowy mountain ridges and be- 
tween them a gap through which the river issued. 
Descending the mountain, the party hurried onward to 
get in touch with the canoe. After a long walk they 
struck the river and fired two shots but received no 
answer. Mackenzie believed that the canoe must be 
ahead, the Indians thought otherwise. The party walked 
onward and, after crossing a point of land, came again 
upon the river bank. Again they fired shots, again there 
was no answer. Here Mackenzie left Mackay and one 
of the Indians to build a huge fire and to send branches 
of trees afloat as signals to the crew if they were below. 
With the other Indian Mackenzie crossed another long 
point, where the river made a big bend, and on reaching 
the river once more fired their pieces. The echoes died 
away among the spruce-covered hills, but there was no 
response. The only living things in sight were thick 
swarms of gnats and mosquitoes, which, warmed by the 
midday sun, fell voraciously upon the explorers. 

Mackenzie rejoined Mackay in a state of great anxiety. 
Having once myself been separated from my canoe and 



78 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

companions under similar circumstances in an unex- 
plored region hundreds of miles from any human habita- 
tions, I readily understand his emotions. Perhaps his 
followers, weary of the long journey, had turned back 
and had left him and his three companions alone in the 
wilderness. The two Indians were certain that the canoe 
had sunk with all on board and began to plan how they 
could build a raft on which to return. To add still fur- 
ther to their discomfort they were totally without food, 
though, as Mackenzie remarks, they had an abundance 
of water. The explorer bitterly reproached himself for 
having parted from the canoe in such a place. 

Late in the afternoon Mackay and one of the Indians 
set off down the river, and after a long interval the sound 
of distant shots conveyed to Mackenzie the joyful news 
that the canoe had been found. Worn-out and drenched 
with rain, Mackenzie made his way downstream, but 
he confesses that these inconveniences affected him little 
" when I saw myself surrounded with my own people." 
The crew explained that the canoe had been damaged, 
and they had been forced to repair it. Mackenzie sus- 
pected that they had been loafing, but he deemed it wise 
to pretend to believe their story and " even to comfort 
each of them with a consolatory dram." 

Had Mackenzie known the country, he would, after 
ascending the Parsnip about ninety miles, have turned up 
a tributary now called Pack River, which enters the main 
stream from the west. By following this he would have 
reached what is now known as McLeod Lake and could 
have ascended what is now called Crooked River to its 
source in Summit Lake, whence a portage of eight miles 
would have brought him to the Fraser River. But his 
only information had been derived from the old Indian 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 79 

who had told him vaguely that by following the stream 
he was on to its headwaters he would be able to make 
a portage across to another river. Therefore, he con- 
tinued to follow the main Parsnip, hoping each day to 
meet with savages who would give him information. Re- 
peatedly the explorers saw old encampments and other 
signs which proved that the region was inhabited, but it 
was not until the ninth day on the Parsnip that they 
smelled smoke and on going a little farther saw some 
natives in the woods. 

The party was a small one, and all except two warriors 
at once fled into the forest. These two stood on a little 
eminence, brandishing their spears and bows, and yelling 
defiance. After a long parley, however, the natives were 
convinced that the explorers came with peaceful inten- 
tions, and they recalled their fugitive families from the 
woods. Mackenzie pleased them with gifts of beads and 
other trifles and eagerly inquired of the great river to 
westward of which he had heard. Much to his chagrin 
they answered that the only large river in that direction 
was one which was a branch of the stream they were now 
on — doubtless Crooked River of to-day. But as the in- 
terpreter was able to communicate with them only im- 
perfectly Mackenzie did not altogether despair and 
renewed his inquiries the next day. Again the explorer 
was disappointed, but finally one of the natives stated 
that he knew of a great river to southward which ran 
toward the midday sun, and that a branch of it ran near 
the headwaters of the stream they were on. He stated 
that the inhabitants along its banks built houses, lived 
on islands, and were numerous and warlike, but he denied 
that the river emptied into the sea. Mackenzie, his 
spirits soaring at the welcome information, imputed the 



8o TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

man's opinion that the river did not run into the sea " to 
his ignorance of the country." 

By the use of presents Mackenzie persuaded one of 
the Indians to guide him to the portage, which they 
reached in two days' time. The stream they had been 
following ended in a small lake. A carry of about eight 
hundred paces over a divide brought them to another 
small lake, the outlet of which flowed in the direction 
they wished to go, but it was too much obstructed with 
fallen trees to be navigable. Another portage of one 
hundred and seventy-five paces brought them to a third 
lake, from which they passed into a small river. This 
stream was soon increased in size by many small streams 
which came cascading down the mountain-sides from the 
melting snows above. But fallen trees, jagged rocks, and 
rapids rendered navigation highly perilous. To-day this 
stream is called Bad River. The second day on this river 
began with a serious adventure. 

" We accordingly pushed off," says Mackenzie, " and 
had proceeded but a short way when the canoe struck, 
and notwithstanding all our exertions the violence of the 
current was so great as to drive her sideways down the 
river and break her on the first bar, when I instantly 
jumped into the water, and the men followed my exam- 
ple; but before we could set her straight or stop her we 
came to deeper water so that we were obliged to reembark 
with the utmost precipitation. One of the men who was 
not sufficiently active was left to get on shore in the best 
manner in his power. We had hardly regained our situa- 
tions when we drove against a rock which shattered the 
stern of the canoe in such a manner that it held only by 
the gunwales so that the steersman could no longer keep 
his place. The violence of this stroke drove us to the 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 8i 

opposite side of the river, which is but narrow, when the 
bow met with the same fate as the stern. At this mo- 
ment the foreman seized some branches of a small tree 
in the hope of bringing up the canoe, but such was their 
elasticity that, in a manner not easily described, he was 
jerked on shore in an instant and with a degree of vio- 
lence that threatened his destruction. But we had no 
time to turn from our own situation to inquire what had 
befallen him; for, in a few momens, we came across a 
cascade which broke several large holes in the bottom 
of the canoe and started all the bars except one behind 
the scooping seat. If this accident, however, had not 
happened the vessel must have been irretrievably overset. 
The wreck becoming flat on the water we all jumped out, 
while the steersman, who had been compelled to abandon 
his place and had not recovered from his fright, called out 
to his companions to save themselves. My peremptory 
commands superseded the effects of his fear, and they 
all held fast to the wreck; to which fortunate resolution 
we owed our safety, as we should otherwise have been 
dashed against the rocks by the force of the water or 
driven over the cascades. In this condition we were 
forced several hundred yards, and every yard on the verge 
of destruction ; but at length we most fortunately arrived 
in a small eddy, where we were enabled to make a stand, 
from the weight of the canoe resting on the stones rather 
than from any exertions of our exhausted strength. For 
though our efforts were short, they were pushed to the 
utmost, as life or death depended on them." 

Benumbed from their bath in the icy water, the party 
at last reached the bank, and were there joined by the two 
men who had been forced to quit the craft. The canoe 
was a wreck, and all the bullets had been lost, but the 



82 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

powder had received no damage, and the shot remained 
and from it bullets could be made. No one had been 
seriously injured, and a fire and a dram of rum raised 
the spirits of all. Some of the men, however, wished to 
turn back, and it required all of Mackenzie's authority 
and eloquence to persuade them to persevere in the 
hazardous journey. 

The canoe was repaired, and for four days the ex- 
plorers made their painful way onward. Mosquitoes and 
black flies besieged them in clouds, and the river was so 
bad that most of the time they were forced to carry their 
canoe and baggage through a tangle of woods and 
swamps. Their guide deserted them one night and was 
not seen again, but finally late in the evening of the 1 7th 
of June, weary and worn, the explorers emerged from the 
forest upon the bank of a large river — the north fork 
of what is now called the Fraser River. 

And now for some time they were able to take things 
easily. Leisurely drifting and paddling with the current, 
they reached next day the south, or main, fork; here the 
combined stream was about half a mile wide. On the 
second day on this river they portaged around what is 
now called Giscome Rapids, some miles above the 
present town of Prince George, and the same day saw 
a party of Indians, who fled into the woods on seeing 
them. Next day they came upon a larger party, the 
warriors of which displayed great fury and let fly a flight 
of arrows, most of which fell short while others passed 
over the canoe. Luckily Mackenzie's Indians understood 
the language, and after long-range negotiations amicable 
relations w^ere established. These Indians said that the 
river ran toward the midday sun, that white men were 
reported to be building houses around its mouth, but that 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 83 

there were three places where the stream was altogether 
impassable because of falls and rapids. 

Accompanied by two of these natives, the explorers con- 
tinued their journey down the river. From Indians 
farther down Mackenzie heard such a discouraging ac- 
count of the river ahead that on June 23d he decided to 
return upstream to a point where the Indians told him 
it was possible to make a portage to a stream that 
emptied into the Great Water. 

Now, however, difficulties multiplied. The unexpected 
return of the white men combined with other circum- 
stances to alarm the Indians whose camps Mackenzie had 
already passed. They adopted a hostile demeanor and 
fled to the woods. Even the guide who had promised to 
show them the way across the portage disappeared. Mac- 
kenzie's followers became panic-stricken and were eager 
to start for home. More than once he feared they would 
break out in open mutiny. However, he managed to keep 
them in hand, and some days were spent in building a 
new canoe to replace the old, which was little more than 
a wreck. On the 29th of June Mackenzie's heart was 
rejoiced by the return of the guide, who explained that 
he had been employed in searching for his family, who 
had been seized with panic and had fled on hearing the 
false reports about the hostile designs of the white men. 

The explorers now built a cache of logs in which they 
placed many of their belongings, and they put their canoe 
upon a stage. Some pemmican, wild rice, corn, and a 
small keg of gunpowder they hid in the ground, rolled up 
in oilcloth and dressed leather. The rest of their belong- 
ings they carried with them. 

For two weeks they traveled westward through a rough 
country, forced to subsist on scanty rations, and often 



84 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

drenched by rains. From time to time they met small 
bands of Indians, from among whom they engaged new 
guides. Finally they climbed a range of mountains so 
high that the pass through which they traveled was cov- 
ered with snow. Having surmounted this barrier they 
descended into a valley and on the 17th of July reached 
a navigable river flowing westward. 

An Indian village stood upon the bank, and, as it was 
already dark, the inhabitants had no warning of the 
approach of the white men. The people were inside their 
huts cooking fish over small fires. Without ceremony 
Mackenzie walked into one of the huts, threw down his 
burden, shook hands with some of the people, and sat 
down upon his pack. The inmates showed little surprise 
but soon made signs for him to go to a large house that 
was built upon posts some distance above the ground. 
He climbed into this house by a rude sort of ladder and 
after passing three fires in the middle of the building he 
came upon a group of Indians seated on a very wide 
board. Among these people he noticed one of his guides. 
Soon the rest of INIackenzie's party entered, and all were 
given seats. One of the Indians then brought a quan- 
tity of roasted salmon for their use. Later the white men 
were invited to sleep in the building, but Mackenzie pre- 
ferred to camp outside. A large fire was built, and the 
Indians brought boards, so that their guests need not 
sleep on the bare ground. Two large dishes of cooked 
salmon roes were then brought for their further delecta- 
tion. Next morning they were treated to gooseberries, 
whortleberries, raspberries, dried roes, and roasted 
salmon. 

The Indians at this village were, in fact, more provi- 
dent than was customary among the American aborigines. 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 85 

With great labor they had built a weir across the river, 
and in an opening in the center they placed their ma- 
chines for catching fish. Salmon were, it was clear, the 
staff of life to this people, as they were to almost all 
Indians living along streams emptying into the Pacific 
along the northwest coast. 

For several days the explorers descended the river, 
part of the time walking along its banks, part of the time 
riding in canoes obtained from Indians met with along 
the way. Even on the Eraser Mackenzie had seen a 
knife and other articles that had evidently been obtained 
from white men. Such articles now became more and 
more common. One chieftain, for example, showed the 
explorer a blue cloth garment decorated with brass but- 
tons and another of flowered cotton trimmed with a 
leather fringe. The same chief stated that ten winters 
before he had seen two large vessels on the Big Water, and 
Mackenzie supposed that they were probably the ships 
commanded by Captain Cook. The gunwales of the 
big dugout canoe in which the chief had traveled on that 
occasion were inlaid with the teeth of the sea-otter. 

Finally late in the afternoon of the i8th of July 
Mackenzie came at last in sight of his goal — an arm 
of the sea. He was still a long distance from .the open 
ocean, but the tide rose and fell fifteen feet, and por- 
poises and seals were almost constantly in sight. The 
spot was not far from the present town of Bella Coola, 
and the stream they had descended was the Bella Coola 
River. 

For three days the explorers paddled about in a maze 
of inlets and channels. Food was scarce, and the Indians 
seen were inclined to be disagreeable. One insolent 
fellow constantly harped upon the fact that he had been 



86 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

shot at by white men on a ship and had been struck by 
one of them with the flat of a sword. Mackenzie kept 
his men constantly on guard, and to these precautions the 
party probably owed their safety. Having taken obser- 
vations for longitude and latitude, Mackenzie mixed some 
vermilion in melted grease and on the face of a great 
rock wrote: 

" ALEXANDER MACKENZIE, FROM CANADA, BY LAND, 
THE TWENTY-SECOND OF JULY, 1 793." 

The same day they set out on the return and reached 
the mouth of the river by which they had come. They 
disembarked and made their way by land toward an 
Indian village. Mackenzie and the Indian guide preceded 
the others, and when the two neared the village, several 
armed warriors ran toward them as if with hostile intent. 
Among them was the fellow who had said so often that 
he had been shot at by white men. Mackenzie at first 
raised his gun and brought them to a halt; then let it 
fall into his left hand and drew his hanger. The Indians 
pressed forward, and one of them contrived to get behind 
the explorer and to seize him in his arms. Mackenzie 
soon wrenched himself free, but was never able to under- 
stand why the warrior did not avail himself of the chance 
to plunge his dagger into the white man's body. Mac- 
kenzie's followers now began to appear, whereupon the 
Indians fled to the village, taking with them Mackenzie's 
hat and cloak. Knowing that some of the Indians in the 
village had stolen some of his belongings a few days be- 
fore, Mackenzie determined to teach the savages a lesson. 
Marching to the village, he demanded the return of all 
the stolen articles. Awed by the prospect of a fight with 
the white men, the Indians complied. 



HOW MACKENZIE REACHED THE PACIFIC 87 

Many days of toilsome effort brought the explorers 
back to their canoe and cache, where they found all safe. 
A week of paddling, poling, and tracking, with a few 
portages, and they arrived at Bad River, in ascending 
which they were forced to work hard on scanty rations. 
Finally on the 17th of July they once more embarked 
on the headwaters of Parsnip River. Thenceforth they 
had the current to aid them, and a few days of compara- 
tively easy work brought them to the Rocky Mountain 
portage. There they were lucky enough to kill a buffalo 
and two elk, and from then on they lived on the fat of 
the land. Finally on August 24 they reached the post 
from which they had started so many weeks before. 

Thus ended an expedition fully as remarkable as that 
to the Arctic. For the first time the Continent had been 
crossed by white men. Vast regions had been opened 
up to the knowledge of the civilized world. Mackenzie's 
exploit preceded by a decade that of Lewis and Clark. 
The natural obstacles overcome by him were fully as 
difficult, and his means much less. 

Mackenzie subsequently acquired a fortune in the fur 
trade. In 1801 he published an account of his two expe- 
ditions, and for his services he was knighted by the king. 
He ultimately settled down upon an estate in his native 
Scotland and died in 1820. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE FUR TRADING ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 

Of all the fur traders who wandered over the Northwest, 
Alexander Henry the Younger, nephew of the Alexander 
Henry whose adventures have already been mentioned, 
has left us the most complete record of the daily life of 
those who followed his occupation. For a period of 
about fifteen years, from 1799 to 1814, he kept a 
voluminous diary of his experiences, the scenes of which 
ranged from Lake Superior to the Pacific. Over eighty 
years later this diary, in condensed form, was edited and 
given to the world by Dr. Elliott Coues, a distinguished 
student of western history. 

In 1799 Henry engaged in a trading venture in what 
is now Manitoba and made a clear profit of about $3,500 
on less than two canoe loads of goods. The next year, 
as an agent of the Northwest Company, he set out from 
Grand Portage on Lake Superior and followed the Rainy 
River and Lake of the Woods route westward. Each of 
his brigade of canoes contained twenty-eight packs, and 
included tobacco, guns, powder and lead, and ten kegs 
of high wine, that is, brandy. The food for the canoe- 
men consisted of six bushels of corn and half a keg of 
grease for every four men, besides what fish or game 
could be caufrht or killed. 

There were many rapids and portages along the way. 
To avoid the labor of making what was known as the 
Portage d'Isle, the crew of one canoe tried to shoot the 

88 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 8g 

rapids. They had not gone far when the bowman made 
a mistake, with the result that the bow struck a rock on 
shore, and the current whirled the canoe around. Both 
the bowman and steersman managed to leap upon the 
rock, but the midman was not active enough to do so 
and remained in the canoe, which was instantly carried 
out into the wild water. For a moment she stood on 
end and then disappeared. The man clung to a bale of 
goods that had been washed overboard, and those on 
shore made every effort to aid him, but in vain. A heavy 
swell swept him off the bale, and he disappeared. The 
canoe, in badly damaged condition, and some of the 
goods were recovered, but the man was never seen again. 

On August 1 6th the voyageurs reached Lake Winni- 
peg, and the same day were almost wrecked by a storm. 
Ducks were very plentiful, and Henry killed a number, 
also a white pelican. The beach was covered with dead 
grasshoppers, or Rocky Mountain locusts; they formed 
a continuous line along the edge of the water as far as 
the eye could reach, and in places were from six to nine 
inches deep. 

With a score of voyageur helpers and their Indian 
wives and children and a considerable number of 
Ojibwas, Henry ascended the Red River of the North 
and established a post not far from the mouth of Park 
River in what is now North Dakota. The region round 
about was parklike, with alternate patches of wood and 
open prairie, and the whole country swarmed with game. 
It was Henry's plan to have the Indians and some of the 
voyageurs hunt and trap during the winter. As there 
was great danger from the Sioux, who were almost con- 
stantly at war with the Ojibwas, he surrounded his 
buildings with a high stockade of logs. 



90 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

On the way thither the party saw many buffaloes, and 
Henry was astonished at their number. At one place, 
" the beach, once a soft black mud into which a man 
would sink knee-deep, is now made hard as pavement 
by the numerous herds coming to drink. The willows 
are entirely trampled and torn to pieces; even the bark 
of the smaller trees is rubbed off in many places. The 
grass on the first bank of the river is entirely worn 
away. Numerous paths, some of which are a foot deep 
in the hard turf, come from the plains to the brink of 
the river, and the vast quantity of dung gives this place 
the appearance of a cattle yard." 

From this place Henry went on his first buffalo hunt. 
With a voyageur named Desmarais he rode about a mile 
from the river and discovered an animal lying in the 
grass. They dismounted and crept forward to within 
thirty paces. It was a big bull, and Henry whispered to 
Desmarais, who was an old hunter, to fire at the animal, 
but the voyageur objected, saying that a buffalo could 
rarely be killed when in that posture. He suggested that 
Henry start the bull with a shot and said that he would 
then kill the animal. Henry was carrying what was for 
that day a powerful double-barreled gun, and with it he 
aimed as best he could for the heart. When he fired, the 
bull stretched out his neck, legs^ and tail, and instantly 
expired — to Henry's great satisfaction and the chagrin 
of Desmarais. 

" Having plenty of meat in the camp," says Henry, 
" we took only the tongue, leaving the animal for the 
wolves and crows, of which we saw many hovering 
around. Just as we mounted we perceived a large herd 
of cows to the southward, moving down to the river to 
drink. We rode toward them, and having got under the 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 91 

bank, which was scarcely high enough to conceal us, 
we kept on through the woods at full speed, in hopes of 
intercepting them. But in this we failed; we found they 
had drunk and returned to the meadows. No time was 
to be lost; we rode after them at full speed through the 
woods which line the river. I was so anxious to overtake 
them that I did not take proper care to avoid the trees, 
and suddenly my right breast struck full upon the point 
of an oak limb as thick as my wrist. Fortunately for me 
it broke off. I had not time to examine the wound, but 
cleared the woods and sighted the buffaloes, not more than 
one hundred paces off. We gave our horses the rein, and 
were soon up with the herd. The dust they raised almost 
blinded us, having the wind ahead. My horse was none 
of the best hunters; he was fleet, but timid in closing 
up with buffaloes. I could only get a long shot, which 
fortunately knocked over a bull. I looked round for 
my companion and saw him still near the river, whipping 
his stubborn horse, which would not pursue the buffalo. 
I now examined my wound, when I found the limb had 
gone through my jacket, vest, and shirt, and penetrated 
the flesh half an inch, just below the right nipple. 
Desmarais having joined me, we took the tongue of the 
animal only, although he was tolerably fat, left him 
for the wolves to devour, and started homeward. On our 
way we killed two more bulls." 

Henry's Journal is full of other references to the vast 
number of the buffaloes. In one place he tells of many 
miring down in the mud and dying. In another he relates 
how whole herds of the animals broke through the ice 
of Red River and for two days and nights their dead 
bodies " formed one continuous line in the current." 
Thousands grounded along the bank, and the stench from 



92 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

their bodies was so strong that at times Henry was 
unable to eat his meals. The Indians told him that every 
spring it was " about the same." 

Fresh buffalo meat, fat, dried tongues, and pemmican 
formed the main support of both Indians and traders, and 
great numbers of the animals were killed for that pur- 
pose. But the instinct for killing sometimes led both 
Whites and Reds to engage in useless slaughter. Once, 
for example, Henry and about a score of Indians and 
voyageurs amused themselves by lying in wait under the 
river bank and shooting at the animals when they came 
down to drink. " When the poor brutes," he writes, 
" came to within about ten yards of us, on a sudden 
we would fire a volley of twenty-nine guns at them, killing 
and wounding many, of which we only took the tongues. 
The Indians suggested that we should all fire together at 
one lone bull which appeared, to have the satisfaction, 
as they said, of killing him stone dead. The beast ad- 
vanced until he was within six or eight paces, when the 
yell was given and all hands let fly; but instead of falling 
he galloped off, and it was only after several more dis- 
charges that he was brought to the ground. The Indians 
enjoyed this sport highly — it is true the ammunition cost 
them nothing." 

Often the herds passed close to the fort. Once a cow 
actually entered it and was shot at the foot of Henry's 
gallery. Another time a herd of cows were crossing the 
river on the ice nearby, and the dogs prevented one ani- 
mal from getting ashore. Some of the men took lines and 
entangled her legs, after which they fastened a line about 
her horns and dragged her into the fort. Suddenlv, how- 
ever, she jumped up and charged at the dogs. Two of 
the men leaped upon her back, " but this did not incom- 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 93 

mode her; she was as nimble in jumping and kicking 
at the dogs as before, although they are two stout men — 
Crow weighing at least one hundred and ninety pounds." 

Henry relates that one spring day he killed four 
buffalo calves and brought two calves home alive. They 
no sooner lost sight of the herd than they followed his 
horse like dogs, right into the fort. On chasing a herd 
at that season of the year the calves would run until 
exhausted and would then throw themselves down in the 
high grass and lie still, hiding their heads if possible. 
When the hunter came upon them, they would start tc 
run, but, seeing only the man and his horse, would stop 
and allow themselves to be taken. If not discovered, 
they would lie still until their mothers returned in search 
of them. As Henry was butchering one of the calves he 
had killed that day, he heard something running toward 
him, and on looking up saw a large cow running directly 
at him. He had only just time to catch up his gun and 
fire without taking proper aim, but he wounded her 
slightly, and she made off. More than once Henry had 
even narrower escapes, and his Journal is full of exciting 
hunting experiences. 

Elk, black bears, coyotes, and timber wolves were 
common, and the much dreaded grizzly was occasionally 
met with. The dogs belonging to the post occasionally 
mated with wolves, though more often they fought them. 
Henry's Journal for 1800 tells of the killing of a grizzly 
about a mile from the fort, and this reference possesses 
much zoological interest, for the grizzly was rarely found 
so far east. Sturgeon, pike, and many other kinds of 
fish could be taken from the river in great numbers. So 
it was not often that the traders and their red friends 
lacked food. At posts where he was later stationed 



94 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Henry added to his supplies by raising vegetables, espe- 
cially potatoes, which produced heavy yields. 

So long as he remained in the Red River region Henry 
and those about him lived in constant dread of the 
warlike Sioux. There were repeated false alarms, some 
of them of a ludicrous character, when the real truth 
became known. Finally, however, the Sioux actually 
came. 

In August, 1805, while stationed at a post where 
Pembina River joins Red River, Henry received the un- 
welcome news that the enemy had surprised a camp of 
his Indians on Tongue River, a stream not far from the 
fort, and had killed or carried off fourteen persons. The 
first person killed was a brave named Liard, whose 
daughter Henry had married — as was the common custom 
among fur traders of that day. Liard had climbed a tree 
to look for buffalo and had no sooner reached the top 
when two Sioux fired at him. Both balls passed through 
his body. He had just strength enough to cry out to 
his family, who were in a lodge about a hundred yards 
away: " Save yourselves! the Sioux are killing us! " He 
then fell dead to the ground, his body breaking several 
branches of the tree as it fell. 

The noise brought the other Ojibwas out of their 
lodges, when, recognizing the danger, the women and 
children instantly ran toward a large woods on Tongue 
River, about a mile distant and in the direction of the 
fort. The four surviving Ojibwas warriors seized their 
arms and made off also, but kept in the rear of the 
women and children to protect them. It was not long 
before the main war party came dashing down on horse- 
back, whooping and yelling diabolically. The four war- 
riors, firing carefully, held them off until some of the 




PU 



O 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 95 

fugitives had entered the wood, but then the enemy sur- 
rounded them. Three of the Ojibwas warriors fled, but 
two of them were slain. The fourth, a brave fellow 
named Aceguemanche, or Little Chief, waited deliber- 
ately until the Sioux were very near, when he fired at 
their chief and knocked him off his pony. Three young 
girls and a boy were taken prisoners; several other fugi- 
tives were slain upon the spot, including Little Chief. 

Several squaws and children took refuge in the woods, 
where the willows and other brush were so thick that 
every one escaped, A boy of twelve, closely pursued, 
crawled into a hollow under a bunch of willows, and a 
Sioux leaped his horse over it without perceiving the 
scared little lad. 

One of the little girls told a pitiful story of the fate 
that befell Liard's squaw, who was Henry's mother-in- 
law. She had two young children who could not run 
fast enough, so she took one upon her back and prevailed 
upon her sister-in-law to carry the other. But when the 
Sioux swooped down upon them with hideous yells, the 
sister-in-law threw down the child in her terror and soon 
caught up with the mother, who was ahead. Seeing that 
the child was missing and hearing its screams, the brave 
mother kissed her little daughter — the one who related 
the story — and said with tears streaming from her eyes: 
" Take courage, my daughter ! try to reach the woods — 
and if you do, go to your eldest sister, who will be kind 
to you; I must turn back and save your younger sister, 
or die in the attempt — take courage — run fast, my daugh- 
ter! " The poor mother actually did recover the child 
and was running off with both children, when she was 
felled to the ground by a blow on the head with a war 
club. She sprang up instantly, drew her knife, and 



96 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

plunged it into the neck of her assailant, but other Sioux 
coming up, she was slain. 

Henry was absent from the fort when the news of the 
massacre arrived, but some of his employees and a party 
of Ojibwas visited the scene of the massacre. All the 
dead had been mutilated in a horrible manner, and the 
skull of brave Little Chief had been carried off for use 
as a water dish. A war party set out in pursuit of the 
Sioux but quarreled among themselves, and the massacre 
was not avenged. 

In July four years later the Sioux even ventured an 
attack upon the fort itself. At the time there were over 
a score of friendly warriors, about fifty squaws, and many 
children camped on the slope between the fort and the 
river. In the fort Henry had eight assistants. The In- 
dians had been having a grand drinking bout and were 
in a badly demoralized condition, while, to prevent them 
from injuring each other, Henry had collected all their 
guns and taken them into the fort. 

At midnight there was a sudden discharge of firearms 
from out in the darkness, accompanied by the blood- 
curdling warwhoop. Several bullets pierced the lodges, 
but no one was hit. Instantly the Ojibwas sprang to their 
feet and rushed for the fort, in order to obtain their 
guns. As the gates were locked, the warriors climbed 
over the stockade and hurried to Henry's house, where 
they snatched up their guns and then ran to the gates, 
which had then been opened. Through them poured the 
frightened squaws, with their children and whatever pos- 
sessions they had been able to catch up in the dark- 
ness. Two families who were encamped on the opposite 
side of the river jumped into a boat and also made their 
way to safety. In a very short time all the friendly 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 97 

Indians were inside the fort. Incredible as it may seem, 
not one of the Indians had been hit; the only loss was 
that of an unlucky dog, which was hit in the head by two 
bullets, as he was in the act of jumping into the boat to 
cross the river. 

From out in the darkness Henry could hear the Sioux 
haranguing each other. He pointed a coehorn, a kind of 
small cannon, loaded with a pound of powder and thirty 
balls, in the direction of the voices, and one of his men 
applied the match. Says Henry: "The balls clattered 
among the large trees across the little river, and the 
noise of the discharge must have appeared awful to peo- 
ple who had never heard anything of the kind before. 
My Indians hoped to find a good round number of the 
enemy dead, as they said they heard the Sioux lamenting 
their fallen relations. Everything was quiet for some 
time, till we again heard the enemy haranguing; but they 
had withdrawn to a greater distance. I once more loaded 
my coehorn: and, pointing it as nearly as possible to the 
spot where we heard them, fired a second shot. This 
caused them apparently to withdraw still further, as we 
heard no more of them during the night." 

The sound of the thunder gun was evidently too much 
for the Sioux, for next morning they were seen riding 
off down Red River. The whites and their allies found 
a whip on the handle of which there was fresh blood, but 
they found no dead, and it is probable that no one on 
either side was killed during the raid. Several parties 
of friendly Indians, half-breeds, and whites who were 
not in the fort had miraculous escapes from meeting the 
hostiles. Henry and some Indian scouts found the spot 
where the enemy had made ready for the attack. It was 
about a mile and a half from the fort, and from it the 



98 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

enemy could in the daytime watch the blockhouses and 
stockades. 

" Here," says Henry, " we found upward of one hun- 
dred pairs of old shoes, some scalps, remnants of leather 
and buffalo-skins, saddle-cloths made of buffalo robes, 
whips, pieces of old saddles, rolls of bark containing war- 
caps, bark and willow dishes, also, paunches and bladders 
of water for a journey. Upward of one hundred willows, 
about six feet long, with a fork about the middle, were 
stripped of their bark, and stuck in the ground. This, I 
am told, is for the purpose of hanging up their war-caps 
before attacking an enemy. We also observed some 
places where they had seated themselves in the long grass 
by twos, threes, and fours, to adjust their war-dresses. 
At every seat we found a quantity of swan's down, 
colored with red earthy under which we found from one 
to four small stones, about the size of an egg, also daubed 
over with red earth; and nearby were stuck in the ground 
the same number of willows, about two feet long, stripped 
of their bark, and daubed with the same red earth. Such 
a place is called by the Indians ' the spot of the last 
sacrifice,' as it is here that they adjust themselves for 
battle, and generally make a sacrifice of different articles 
they have brought with them for that purpose, to insure 
the protection of the Supreme Being, or, as they term 
him, the Master of Life." 

It was with such ceremonials as these that the bar- 
barians of the northwestern plains made ready to go 
out and murder their fellow-men! 

Henry experienced infinitely more trouble with the 
Indians with whom he traded than from the hostile 
Sioux. Most of them were a licentious, begging, untrust- 
worthy lot, and to their natural weaknesses had been 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 99 

added an overpowering craving for the white man's fire- 
water. Liquor had come to be the one article they held 
in most esteem, and even the traders who deplored the 
traffic were forced to supply the want or else be ruined. 
Kegs of rum, whiskey, high wine (that is, brandy), and 
other liquors formed part of the cargo of every brigade 
of canoes that traveled westward from Lake Superior. 

The liquor was sold to the Indians in diluted form. 
Those living nearest civilization, having the more edu- 
cated tastes, demanded the strongest mixture; those in 
the more remote regions were satisfied with a much 
weaker compound. The Ojibwas, who had had long 
experience with the white man's firewater, did not con- 
sider the mixture strong enough unless eight or nine 
iquarts of brandy were used in making a nine-gallon keg 
of drink. For the Crees and Assiniboines, who were less 
experienced, six quarts to the keg were sufficient. For the 
Blackfeet, to whom strong drink was a new delight, the 
traders of Henry's day were accustomed to put only four 
or five quarts in the keg. Generally speaking, the In- 
dians were much more easily overcome by intoxicants 
than white men; only a small quantity of alcohol was 
required to make one of them drunk. 

Their fondness for firewater was so great that they 
would barter their horses, arms, clothing, or even theit 
wives and children to obtain it. Henry relates that on 
one occasion a brave offered to sell him his nine-year-old 
daughter for a small quantity of the drink. 

Henry's Journal is full of decriptions of violent scenes 
which were the direct result of the use of liquor. For 
example, he records on March 14, 1802, that " In a drink- 
ing match at the Hills yesterday, Gros Bras in a fit of 
jealousy stabbed Aupusoi to death with a hand-dague; 



loo TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

the first stroke opened his left side, the second his belly, 
and the third his breast; he never stirred, although he had 
a knife in his belt, and died instantly. Soon after this 
Aupusoi's brother, a boy about ten years of age, took the 
deceased's gun, loaded it with two balls, and approached 
Gros Bras' tent. Putting the muzzle of the gun through 
the door the boy fired the two balls into his breast and 
killed him dead, just as he was reproaching his wife for 
her affection for Aupusoi, and boasting of the revenge he 
had taken. The little fellow ran into the woods and 
hid. Little Shell found the old woman, Aupusoi's mother, 
in her tent; he instantly stabbed her. Ondainoiache then 
came in, took the knife, and gave her a second stab. 
Little Shell, in his turn taking the knife, gave a third 
blow. In this manner did these two rascals continue to 
murder the old woman, as long as there was any life in 
her. The boy escaped into Langlois' house, and was kept 
hid until they were all sober. Next morning a hole was 
dug in the ground, and all three were buried together." 
Henry mentions dozens of other drinking affrays that 
had fatal results. Drink had the effect of changing many 
of the Indians into veritable demons. Henry tells of one 
Indian who " was so troublesome that we had to tie him 
with ropes to prevent his doing mischef. He was stabbed 
in the back in three different places about a month ago. 
His wounds were still open, and had an ugly appearance;' 
in his strueelinsr to pet loose thev burst out afresh and 
bled a great deal. We had much trouble to stop the 
blood, as the fellow was insensible to pain or danger; his 
only aim was to bite us. We had some narrow escapes, 
until we secured his mouth, and then he fell asleep." 

Occasionally these drinking affrays had an amusing 
side. Thus at the Red River post there was an old 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY loi 

Indian who was called by the whites Crooked Legs. He 
had two wives, one an aged hag, the other a buxom young 
squaw, who despised him. One day when all were drunk 
Crooked Legs began to accuse the young squaw of in- 
fidelity, whereupon she caught up a long stick and hit 
him a blow over the head that laid him senseless. She 
then ran off and hid in another lodge. On recovering his 
senses the old man took his knife, found her, and began 
to stab her. He would have made an end of her then 
and there had not some of the other squaws disarmed 
him. As it was^ he gave her three bad wounds, from one 
of which the blood gushed out from her lung. On exam- 
ining the wounds Henry thought the woman would surely 
die. As for Crooked Legs, he took refuge in his own tent, 
singing and saying he was not afraid to die. Some of 
the Indians, even his own son, wished to kill him, and 
Henry had much difficulty in preventing them from 
doing so. 

Next day the wounded squaw was able to walk about, 
while her husband, now sober, was very sorry for her. 
As he was skilled in the treatment of wounds, he set 
about curing her. She, however, cast " cruel frowns upon 
the old gentleman," and when he would be dressing her 
wounds would say in reply to tender remarks on his 
part: " Get out, you old dog! If I live, it will be the 
worse for you." 

In the course of a few weeks she completely recovered 
and took advantage of another drinking match to be re- 
venged. She gave her husband a terrific beating with a 
stick, and then, throwing him upon his back, proceeded 
to burn him with a firebrand. Other Indians interfered 
presently and took her away, but not before she had 
reduced him to a shocking condition. Henry records in 



102 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

his Journal for the next day: " Crooked Legs too ill to 
stir; his old wife waits on him, and the young one makes 
fun of him." A few days later Crooked Legs and his 
old wife left the post. " The old gent was," says Henry, 
" in a sad condition, and appeared to be failing fast. I 
had him dragged away on a travaille with my horse." 

Before beginning a drinking bout the Indians would 
sometimes put away all their arms, well aware that they 
might make murderous use of them otherwise. At times 
the traders would themselves attend to the disarming. 
But in their orgies the maddened creatures would impro- 
vise weapons, or would employ the weapons with which 
nature had endowed them. Henry makes frequent men- 
tion of Indians who had their noses or ears bitten off in 
these drinking bouts. 

Another writer says of such scenes: "To see a house 
full of drunken Indians^, consisting of men, women, and 
children, is a most unpleasant sight; for, in that condi- 
tion, they often wrangle, pull each other by the hair, and 
fight. At some times, ten or twelve, of both sexes, may 
be seen, fighting each other promiscuously, until at last 
they all fall on the floor, one upon another, some spilling 
rum out of a small kettle or dish, which they hold in their 
hands, while others are throwing up what they have just 
drunk. To add to this uproar, a number of children, 
some on their mothers' shoulders, and others running 
about and taking hold of their clothes, are constantly 
bawling, the elder ones, through fear that their parents 
may be stabbed, or that some other misfortune may befall 
them in the fray. These shrieks of the children form a 
very unpleasant chorus to the brutal noise kept up by 
the parents, who are engaged in the squabble." 

The drunken Indians were usually so troublesome that 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY t03 

the traders were at their wits' end to manage them, and 
many deadly affrays were the direct result of drink. 
Some traders made use of laudanum to put the quarrel- 
some to sleep. In at least one instance the dose was 
made too large, and death resulted. Sir Alexander Mac- 
kenzie says of this case: " Most of them who passed the 
winter on the Saskathiwine, got to the Eagle Hills, where, 
in the spring of 1780, a few days previous to their in- 
tended departure, a large band of Indians being engaged 
in drinking about their houses, one of the traders, to ease 
himself of the troublesome importunities of a native, gave 
him a dose of laudanum in a glass of grog, which effec- 
tually prevented him from giving further trouble to any 
one, by setting him asleep forever. This accident pro- 
duced a fray, in which one of the traders, and several of 
the men, were killed, while the rest had no other means 
to save themselves but by a precipitate flight." 

Henry was not a man of much humanity of feeling. 
His main concern was to get furs at the cheapest price. 
His opinion of the Indians was a very low one. But oc- 
casionally a gleam of higher feelings appears in his pages, 
and he laments the use made of liquor in the Indian 
trade. For example, his entry for one day was as 
follows: 

" In the evening we were surprised by hearing three 
reports of a gun. Old Fallewine soon arrived, and 
bawled out at a distance, as soon as he thought we could 
hear him, that five Indians had been murdered near 
Portage la Prairie since I passed there, relations of him- 
self and some others who camped here. This firing was 
the usual signal of death in carrying news from one camp 
to another. But the Indians totally neglect their ancient 
customs; and to what can this degeneracy be ascribed but 



104 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

to their intercourse with us, particularly as they are so 
unfortunate as to have a continual succession of opposi- 
tion parties to teach them roguery and destroy both body 
and mind with that pernicious article, rum? What a 
different set of people they would be, were there not a 
drop of liquor in the country! If a murder is committed 
among the Saulteurs [Ojibwas], it is always in a drink- 
ing match. We may truly say that liquor is the root of all 
evil in the Northwest. Great bawling and lamentation 
went on, and I was troubled most of the night for liquor 
to wash away grief." 

Among the Ojibwas who visited Henry's post on Red 
River was a young Indian named Berdash. He was con- 
sidered effeminate in his ways, but was the swiftest runner 
of his tribe, and some years before had had a remarkable 
adventure that tested both his speed and courage. A fur 
trader named Reaume attempted to make peace between 
the Ojibwas and Sioux, and Berdash accompanied a party 
of his tribesmen to the Sioux camp. They at first ap- 
peared reconciled to each other through the intercession 
of the whites, but as the Saulteurs, who were mostly un- 
armed, were returning home, the Sioux pursued them. 
" Both parties were on foot, and the Sioux have the name 
of being extraordinarily swift. The Saulteurs impru- 
dently dispersed in the plains, and several were killed; 
but the party with Berdash escaped without any acci- 
dent, in the following manner: One of them had got from 
the Sioux a bow but only a few arrows. On startino: and 
finding themselves pursued, they ran a considerable dis- 
tance, until they perceived the Sioux were gaining fast 
upon them, when Berdash took the bow and arrows from 
his comrades, and told them to run as fast as possible, 
without minding him, as he feared no danger. He then 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 105 

faced the enemy and began to let fly his arrows. This 
checked their course, and they returned the compliment 
with interest, but it was so far off that only a chance 
arrow could have hurt him, as they had nearly spent their 
strength when they fell near him. His own arrows were 
soon expended, but he lost no time in gathering up those 
that fell near him, and thus he had a continual supply. 
Seeing his friends some distance ahead, and the Sioux 
moving to surround him, he turned and ran full speed 
to join his comrades, the Sioux after him. When the 
latter approached too near, Berdash again stopped and 
faced them with his bow and arrows, and kept them at 
bay. Thus did he continue to manoeuver until they 
reached a spot of strong wood which the Sioux dared not 
enter." 

Living for so many years as Henry did in a fur coun- 
try it was inevitable that many curious trapping experi- 
ences should come to his attention. For example, he 
relates that one day a trapper named Laroque came to the 
Red River post bringing a skunk, a badger, and a large 
white wolf, " all three caught in the same trap at once, 
as he said. This we thought extraordinary — indeed, a 
falsehood — until he explained the affair. His trap was 
made in a hollow stump, in the center of which there was 
a deep hole in the ground. He found the wolf just 
caught, and still alive; he dispatched him, and on taking 
him out, noticed something stirring and making a noise 
in the hole in the ground. Upon looking in he perceived 
the badger, which he killed with a stick, and on pulling 
him out, smelled the horrid stench of the skunk, which 
was in one corner of the hole; he soon dispatched him 
also. From this the Indians all predicted some great 
misfortune, either to the person to whom the traps be- 



io6 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

longed, or to our fort. Some supposed the Sioux would 
destroy us all." 

Henry's explanation of the incident was that the 
badger had chased the skunk into the hole and had in 
turn been pursued by the wolf. This explanation may 
or may not be the correct one. 

" Some went racoon hunting, the weather being warm," 
says Henry under date of November 30, 1800. "They 
returned in the evening with seven, which they had found 
in one hollow tree. The size of this tree was enormous, 
having a hollow six feet in diameter, the rim or shell 
being two feet thick, including the bark. Racoon hunting 
is common here in the winter season. The hunter exam- 
ines every hollow tree met with, and when he sees the 
fresh marks of the claws, he makes a hole with an ax, 
and thus opens the hollow space, in which he lights a fire 
to find out if there be any racoons within, as they often 
climb trees in the autumn, and, not finding them proper 
for the purpose, leave them and seek others. But if they 
be within, the smoke obliges them to ascend and put 
their heads out of the hole they entered. On observing 
this, the ax is applied to the tree; with the assistance 
of the fire, it is soon down, and the hunter stands ready 
to dispatch the animals whilst they are stunned by the 
fall. But sometimes they are so obstinate as to remain 
at the bottom of the hole, until they are suffocated or 
roasted to death. 

" The bears, both grizzly and common black, which 
reside on Red River, take to hollow trees also, and are 
hunted by the Indians in the same manner as racoons. 
But the bears in the Hair Hills, and other elevated places, 
never take to the trees for their winter quarters. They 
reside in holes in the ground, in the most intricate 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 107 

thicket they can find, generally under the roots of trees 
that have been torn up by the wind, or have otherwise 
fallen. These are more difficult to find, requiring good 
dogs that are naturally given to hunt bears. The reason 
why the bears differ so in the choice of their winter 
habitations is obvious. The low points along the river, 
where the woods principally grow, are every spring sub- 
ject to overflow when the ice breaks up. The mud car- 
ried down with the current, and left on the banks, makes 
their dens uncomfortable. On the Hair Hills and other 
high lands, where the ground is free from inundation, 
the soft and sandy soil is not so cold as the stiff, black 
mud on the banks of the river, which appears to be 
made ground. Frequently, on digging holes in winter, we 
found the frost had penetrated the ground nearly four 
feet, like one solid body of ice, while in a high, dry, sandy 
soil, it seldom exceeds one foot in depth." 

Henry had a very low opinion of the Indians in most 
matters but greatly admired their skill as hunters and 
trailers. He relates that in the autumn of 1799 he went 
hunting near the foot of Fort Dauphin Mountain with an 
Ojibwas. Soon they came upon the tracks of some elk, 
or, as Henry calls them, " red deer." They quickly dis- 
covered the band in a thicket of willows and poplars. 
Both fired, but the elk scattered and disappeared. The 
hunters pursued them, but without avail, as the country 
was unfavorable. 

" We then returned," says Henry, " to the spot where 
we had fired, as the Indians suspected that we had 
wounded some of them. We searched to see if we could 
find any blood; on my part, I could find tracks, but no 
blood, nor any sign that an animal had been wounded. 
As the ground was beaten in every direction by animals, 



io8 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

it was only after a tedious search that he found where the 
buck had struck off. But no blood was seen until, pass- 
ing through a thicket of willows, he observed a drop upon 
a leaf, and next a little more. He then began to examine 
more strictly, to find out in what part of the body the 
animal had been wounded; and judging by the height and 
other signs, he told me the wound must have been some- 
where between the shoulder and neck. We advanced 
about a mile, but saw nothing of the deer, and no more 
blood. I was for giving up the chase; but he assured 
me the wound was mortal, and that if the animal should 
lie down he could not rise again. We proceeded two 
miles further, when, coming out upon a small open space, 
he told me the animal was at no great distance, and very 
probably in this meadow. We accordingly advanced a 
few yards, and there we found the deer lying at the last 
gasp. The wound was exactly as I had been told. The 
sagacity of the Saulteurs in tracing strong wood animals 
is astonishing. I have frequently witnessed occurrences 
of this nature; the bend of a leaf or blade of grass is 
enough to show the direction the game has taken. Their 
ability is of equally great service to war-parties, when 
they discover the footsteps of their enemies." 

Henry had many serious disputes with individual In- 
dians. Once a brave tried to stab the trader with Henry's 
own knife, whereupon Henry " gave him a cruel beating 
and bunged up both his eyes, so that he could not see for 
several days." The Indian vowed revenge, and Henry 
had to be constantly on his guard. Another time Henry 
"refused to give debt to Grande Gueule [Big Mouth] 
for a blanket, as I knew he already owed me more than 
he could pay; he is a notorious scoundrel. On leaving 
the house this morning, while I was standing at our door. 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 109 

the fellow slipped the cover off his gun and fired at 
me; the ball struck one of the door-posts. He then loaded 
and fired a second shot, and made off with himself." 

Early in July, 1806, Henry set out on horseback, ac- 
companied by three other men, for a trip to the Mandan 
towns on the Missouri River. The weather was exceed- 
ingly hot, and the mosquitoes were terribly persistent in 
unwelcome attentions. One night at an O jib was village 
the squaws closed the openings of the cabins and then 
built a smudge fire inside; "but to no purpose; it only 
made matters worse by choking us with the bitter smoke. 
If we covered our heads, we were suffocated with heat; 
if we remained uncovered, we were choked with smoke 
and mosquitoes. I, therefore, thought best to get out of 
doors, but was then in danger of being trampled to death 
by the horses, which surrounded the cabins to enjoy the 
smudge." Next day the mosquitoes continued so trou- 
blesome that it was only with difficulty that the travelers, 
when fording streams, could prevent their horses " from 
throwing themselves down and rolling in the water to 
get rid of those cursed insects." 

On July 8th they reached the Assiniboine River about 
ten miles above the present site of Winnipeg. " The uncom- 
monly high water," says Henry, " obliged us to make a 
raft to transport our baggage and equipments to the 
N. side. One of our party, who could not swim, we 
placed upon the raft, and set adrift. William Henry and 
I, and the other man, took to the water upon our horses. 
WilHam, supposing himself an expert swimmer, let go his 
horse, and nearly paid for his imprudence; a severe cramp 
took him in the feet, and it was with much difficulty he 
reached the shore. Having all three got over, we left 
our horses to feed, whilst we went down river in search 



no TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

of the raft, which the strong current had carried mucH 
further than we supposed it would have done, and it was 
some time before we could reach it. This was very dis- 
agreeable. We were entirely naked, so that the mos- 
quitoes had their pleasure with us, and having no shoes, 
it was only with great pain that we could walk in the 
sharp-pointed grass. We found the man on the raft wait- 
ing for us, and lost no time in dressing." 

At his Company's post at the mouth of Mouse River 
Henry's party was increased to seven persons and eight 
horses. They were soon out uDon the bald plains, where 
they were forced to use " buffalo chips " for fuel, and 
where they saw many " iumoine deer," i.e., antelope. 
When far out upon the plains the antelope became so 
tame that the young ones, to satisfy their curiosity, would 
run up within a few yards of the travelers, while the 
mothers would also approach, though more cautiously. 
The travelers had no difficulty in killing plenty of fat 
bull buffaloes for meat, though fuel was so scarce that 
at times they were hardly able to cook the meat. Mos- 
quitoes continued to be so bad that the horses were driven 
almost frantic. One night one of them broke his picket 
line and in jumping and prancing about came down upon 
the leg of the guide, inflicting a painful bruise. In 
course of time the travelers began to come to lakes, the 
water of which, though clear, was so full of alkali as to 
be totally undrinkable. The banks of some of these 
lakes were white as drifted snow. All along the way the 
party kept a sharp lookout for Indian horse-thieves, and 
their watchfulness increased as they entered the Missouri 
country, where there was danger of meeting the dreaded 
Sioux. Soon after coming in sight of the great river one 
of the party saw two buffalo bulls coming round a hill, 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY in 

grazing as they moved along. This alarmed some of the 
men, who insisted that the bulls were horsemen approach- 
ing; two of the French Canadians even declared that 
they could see the riders whipping and kicking their 
horses, as was the Indian custom when riding at full 
speed. Henry himself could see that the moving objects 
were buffaloes and that what was supposed to be the 
riders' arms lashing away was the bulls' tails, which were 
kept in continual motion to drive away the flies. Noth- 
ing he could say could reassure the panic-stricken men, 
who believed that their last day had come. Finally, 
however, a spy-glass confirmed Henry's declarations. 
" Bravery," says he, " instantly appeared on the counte- 
nances of those who, a few moments before, had given 
themselves up for lost." 

Next day they saw many ripe chokecherries, rasp- 
berries, and gooseberries, and passed many clusters of 
prickly pears. Several times they were in danger of 
falling into deep pits which the Indians had dug in the 
path to catch wolves and foxes in the winter time. Some 
of these pits were ten feet deep and hollowed out to a 
circumference of thirty feet, but the entrance was no 
wider than the footpath and about five feet in length. In 
the season when fur was prime the holes were covered 
with dry grass, and several animals would sometimes be 
caught in the pits in a single night. In the afternoon 
they drew near a Mandan village on the bank of the 
Missouri, and passed several fields of corn, beans, 
squashes, and sunflowers. Sunflowers, indeed, were grow- 
ing wild in every direction. They also passed an Indian 
cemetery and saw great numbers of " dead exposed upon 
stages about eight feet from the ground. Many of the 
coverings, which are generally of dressed leather and 



112 TR-AILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

parchment, were still ver>- good, whilst others were de- 
cayed, and nothing but the bones appeared; others, again, 
were decaying and falling to the ground as the stages 
went to pieces." 

The Mandans, then one of the most important tribes 
of the Northwest, lived in settled villages and depended 
in large measure upon agriculture for a livelihood. They 
were generally friendly to white men, and the chief of the 
village, Le Chat (^the Black Cat), welcomed Henn.-^'s 
party and gave them a hut to sleep in. " On going into 
the hut." says Henry. *' we found buffalo hides spread 
on the ground before the fire for us to sit up)on, and were 
presented with two large dishes of boiled corn and beans. 
After that they gave us a large dish of boiled dried meat; 
but few of us could eat of it, as it had too strong a taste 
and smell. This ^^*as just to their own palate, as they 
seldom eat meat until it begins to smdl. We were in- 
vited into several huts successively and presented with 
dried meat in a state of corruption, corn and beans, to- 
gether with parched corn and fresh ears pounded up in a 
wooden mortor; this last dish we found good." 

At night the young men kept watch against enemies, 
and some walked about the village singing love songs 
to their favorite beauties. During the day, if no hunting 
party was to be undertaken, the young men spent their 
time on the tops of the huts, sleeping in the sun, or 
strolling from hut to hut, eating corn and smoking Mis- 
souri tobacco. Occasionally they had races, either on 
foot or on horseback, or practised warlike manceuvers. 
The women busied themselves performing household du- 
ties or hoeing in the fields. The hoes used were made 
of the shoulder blades of buffaloes fastened to a crooked 
stick. One of the tasks of the women was to pound up 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 113 

I 
corn in mortars made for that purpose. In this village 

Henry saw the remains of an excellent corn mill which 
the celebrated explorers Lewis and Clark had left there 
two years before. The foolish Indians had broken it up 
to make barbs for arrows; the largest piece, which they 
had been unable to break up, they had fixed to a wooden 
handle and used to pound marrow-bones to make grease. 
After a short stay at the first village Henry's party 
crossed the Missouri to another. The horses were made 
to swim across the stream, which was about half a mile 
wide; the men were ferried over in the curious craft 
called " bull-boats." " They are of circular form," says 
Henry; " the timbers are only a few bent willows, about 
three inches in circumference, over which is stretched 
a raw buffalo hide with the hair inside, sewed fast to the 
gunnel; this is generally of willow, about two inches in 
diameter. I was surprised to see the great weight these 
tender vessels carried. We embarked baggage, saddles, 
etc., weighing at least two hundred pounds, with Mr. 
Chaboillez, myself, and our ferryman, who was a stout, 
lusty fellow, and our canoe or dish could have supported 
at least one hundred pounds more. In lieu of a paddle 
they use a pole about five feet long, split at one end, to 
admit a piece of board about two feet long and half a 
foot broad, which is lashed to the pole and forms a sort 
of cross; there is but one for each canoe. He who pad- 
dles makes directly for the opposite shore; every stroke 
he gives turns his dish almost entirely round; to recover 
his position and go on his intended route, he must give 
a stroke on the other hand, which brings him up again, 
and so on until he gets over, not without drifting down 
sometimes nearly a mile. Some, I observed, were more 
expert than others in managing their dishes, and did not 



114 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

drift more than a quarter of a mile. As their vessels are 
very light, they take the precaution to carry them on 
their heads, or slung on their backs, to a considerable 
distance higher up the river than where they intend to 
land." 

Henry says that from a distance the Mandan villages 
" appear like a cluster of mole-hills or muskrat cabins. 
The neatly circular huts are placed very irregularly; 
some so close to each other as scarcely to leave a foot- 
passage, others again at a distance of twenty to thirty 
feet apart. But about the center of each village is an 
open space of about four acres, around which the huts 
are regularly built at equal distances, fronting the open 
space." 

Some of the huts were very large. Henry measured 
one of those in which he lodged and " found it ninety feet 
from the door to the opposite side. The whole space is 
first dug out about one and one-half feet below the sur- 
face of the earth. In the center is the square fireplace, 
about five feet on each side, dug out about two feet below 
the surface of the ground flat. The lower part of the 
hut is constructed by erecting strong posts about six feet 
out of the ground, at equal distances from each other, 
according to the proposed size of the hut, as they are 
not all of the same dimensions. Upon these are laid 
logs as large as the posts, reaching from post to post to 
form the circle. On the outer side are placed pieces of 
split wood seven feet long, in a slanting direction, one 
end resting on the ground, the other leaning against the 
cross-logs or beams. Upon these beams rest rafters the 
thickness of a man's leg, and twelve to fifteen feet long, 
slanting enough to drain off the rain, and laid so close 
to each other as to touch. The upper ends of the rafters 




Q^ 



> 



1 '.< 






ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 115 

are supported upon stout pieces of squared timber, which 
last are supported by four thick posts about five feet in 
circumference, fifteen feet out of the ground and fifteen 
feet asunder, forming a square. Over these squared 
timbers others of equal size are laid, crossing them at 
right angles, leaving an opening about four feet square. 
This serves for chimney and windows, as there are no 
other openings to admit light, and when it rains even this 
hole is covered over with a canoe. The whole roof is 
well thatched with the small willows in which the Mis- 
souri abounds, laid on to a thickness of six inches or more, 
fastened together in a very compact manner and well 
secured to the rafters. Over the whole is spread about 
one foot of earth, and around the wall, to the height of 
three or four feet, is commonly laid up earth to the thick- 
ness of three feet, for security in case of an attack and to 
keep out the cold. The door is five feet broad and six 
high, with a covered way or porch on the outside of 
the same height as the door, seven feet broad and ten in 
length. The doors are made of raw buffalo hide stretched 
upon a frame and suspended by cords from one of the 
beams which form the circle. Every night the door is 
barricaded with a long piece of timber." 

One side of the huts was generally used as a stable for 
the horses, in order to keep these valuable animals from 
being stolen by lurking Assiniboines or other enemies. 
Only a railing separated the animals from the living 
quarters of the people themselves. The master sat upon 
a willow mat covered with a buffalo skin, and here he 
received his friends and smoked. A range of beds, one 
for each of his wives, extended to his left; then came 
beds for the young people. At the bottom of the hut, 
fronting the master's seat, stood his medicine stage. 



ii6 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Upon it usually lay a pair of bull's heads, which were 
esteemed a great Manitou and protection; there also were 
hung up the master's bows, shields, and other weapons, 
and whatever scalps he had taken. Near the stage stood 
the mortar and pestle for grinding corn. Fronting the 
porch was a stage for drying meat, corn, beans, and sliced 
squashes. 

At this second village Henry witnessed the return of a 
hunting party of about a hundred warriors, each of which 
brought on his horse about half a buffalo. It was the 
custom of the Mandans usually to hunt in large parties, 
and they rarely used firearms for buffalo, bows and 
arrows being considered sufficiently effective. On the 
return of a hunting party^ says Henry, " the horses are 
instantly unloaded and the meat is taken into the huts, 
where it is spread out upon the ground and exposed for 
some time before the master or mistress of the hut makes 
use of it. Soon afterward the women whose husbands 
or sons have not been hunting enter the huts of those 
who have secured meat; the mistress gives them a share, 
and they walk away with it. It often happens that so 
many of her acquaintances and friends thus drop in that 
not a mouthful remains for her own family. When this 
is the case, she in turn goes to the huts of friends who 
have been hunting, and comes away with a load. It is 
customary for them to go into as many huts as they think 
proper, and bring away more or less, according to the 
degree of intimacy that exists between the families, par- 
ticularly among the women; for they are not without 
their little Jealousies, domestic broils, and tales of scandal, 
like those of civilized nations. It is also customary for 
the old men and old women who have no sons nor any 
particular friends to assist them, on the first news of the 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 117 

hunters' approach, to crawl a mile or more out of the 
villages and sit by the wayside, where almost every 
hunter in passing drops them a piece of meat. By these 
means every individual gets a share of what has been 
killed." 

In their agriculture and in their use of houses the 
Mandans had made some progress along the road to 
civilization, yet they were still scarcely out of the savap^e 
stage. At times the men and women went about wearing 
little or no clothing, and Henry found them to be a very 
immoral people. 

Henry and his party also visited the Gros Ventres 
(Big Bellies), a tribe whose way of living closely resem- 
bled that of the Mandans. The white men accompanied 
the Gros Ventres to make a treaty with the fierce 
Cheyennes, but the negotiations broke up in a great 
quarrel, and for a time a big battle appeared imminent. 
Henry gives an extended account of the painful ordeals 
to which the young men of these tribes submitted. " The 
greater part of the men," says he, " have lost a joint of 
several fingers, particularly of the left hand, and it is not 
uncommon to see only the two forefingers and thumbs 
entire. Amputation is performed for the loss of a near 
relation, and likewise during the days of penance, on 
which they display their fortitude and courage in the 
following manner: When a young man has attained the 
age of twenty years, he generally, in the depth of winter, 
performs his penance by setting out entirely naked and 
alone, with only two or three pairs of shoes, the iron barb 
of the arrow, and no means of making fire. In this con- 
dition he repairs to a certain high hill, a day's journey 
from the village. On this hill he must remain as many 
days as his strength will permit, during which time he 



ii8 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

neither eats, drinks, nor sleeps, but passes the time in 
dancing, bawling, howling, and lamenting. Here also he 
amputates a finger with the iron barb brought for that 
purpose. Some have been known to be absent seven days 
in the severest weather. This may appear incredible, but 
I have it from several eye-witnesses of such pilgrimages, 
and do not doubt it. After several days — more or fewer 
— the penitent makes his appearance, coming at full 
speed, and as there is continually somebody upon the 
huts, information is instantly given of his return. He is 
met by a particular friend, who has kept account of the 
number of days he has been absent, and for every day 
has been prepared a bull's head, to which has been fas- 
tened one and one-half fathoms of cord. The other end 
of this is affixed to an incision in the penitent's back or 
shoulders, by pinching up a fold of skin and flesh, 
through which is thrust the barb of an arrow; as many 
days as he has been absent, so many must be the inci- 
sions, and the number of heads must also tally with them. 
He must then walk around the village, howling and bawl- 
ing, with those bulls' heads trailing on the ground ; in some 
places, where the ground is rough, the poor fellow must 
pull and tug hard to get through, as the horns continually 
catch in uneven spots, and often fall into some of the 
empty corn pits, where they would hold until the skin 
gave way or the cord broke, were they not attended to 
by some children, who make it their business to disen- 
gage the horns. So many days as he has been absent, so 
many times must he walk round the village, never ceasing 
to utter lamentations. Some have been known to fall 
senseless during this painful ordeal; but even they allow 
themselves only a few moments to recover, and proceed 
again. Having finished the necessary rounds, he is dis- 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 119 

engaged from the bull's head by his friend, with a long 
harangue, applauding his courage and fortitude; he may 
then retire to his hut and take care of his wounds, as he 
is in a shocking condition. Some never recover, and 
others languish for months before they get well." 

Lest the reader imagine that Henry overdraws this ac- 
count, it should be said that there is ample evidence that 
it was the custom among some northwestern tribes for 
youths entering the estate of manhood to submit to even 
worse self-inflicted tortures than those just described. 

On the return from the Missouri country Henry and 
his party endured many hardships. Some of their horses 
strayed away and were never found, but the party finally 
reached home in safety. To the last the pestiferous mos- 
quitoes continued to trouble them, and near the end of 
the trip Henry was driven so nearly frantic by their per- 
sistent attacks that he whipped up his weary horse and 
rode the last few miles at a wild gallop. 

Henry spent several years at posts up and down the 
Saskatchewan. There he became well acquainted with 
the Crees, Blackfeet, and other tribes. 

" Their tents," says Henry, in describing the great tribe 
of Crees, " like those of all other tribes of the plains, are 
of dressed leather, erected with poles, generally seventeen 
in number, of which two are tied together about three 
feet from the top. These being erected and set apart at 
the base, the others are placed against them in a slanting 
position, meeting at the top, so that they all form nearly 
a circle, which is then covered with the leather. This 
consists of ten to fifteen dressed skins of the buffalo, 
moose, or red deer, well sewed together and nicely cut to 
fit the conical figure of the poles, with an opening above, 
to let out smoke and admit the light. From this opening 



I20 TRATLMAKFRS OF TIIK NORTHWEST 

down to the door the two edges of the tent are brought 
close together and well secured with wooden pegs about 
six inches long, leaving for the door an oval aperture 
about two feet wide and three feet high^ below which the 
edges are secured with similar pegs. This small entrance 
does well enough for the natives, who are brought up to 
it from infancy, but a European is puzzled to get through, 
as a piece of hide stretched upon a frame of the same 
shape as the door, but somewhat larger, hangs outside, 
and must be raised by hand to pass. These tents are 
spacious, measuring twenty feet in diameter. The fire is 
always made in the center, around which they generally 
place a range of stones to prevent the ashes from scatter- 
ing and keep the fire compact. New tents are perfectly 
white; some of them are painted with red and black 
figures. These devices are generally derived from their 
dreams, being some sea-monster or other hideous animal, 
whose description has been handed down from their an- 
cestors. A large camp of such tents, pitched regularly 
on a level plain, has a fine effect at a distance, especially 
when numerous bands of horses are seen feeding in all 
directions. 

" The men in general tattoo their bodies and arms very 
much. The women confine their ornamentation to the 
chin, having three perpendicular lines from the middle of 
the chin to the Up, and one or more running on each side, 
nearly parallel with the corner of the mouth. Their dress 
consists of leather; that of the men is a pair of leggings, 
reaching up to the hip, and fastened to the breech-clout 
girth. The clout itself is generally a few inches of 
woolen stuff; but, when this cannot be procured, they use 
a piece of dressed leather about nine inches broad and 
four feet long, whose ends are drawn through the girth 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 121 

and hang down before and behind about a foot. They 
are not so particular and decent in this part of their 
dress as the Saulteurs. The shirt is of soft dressed 
leather, either cabbrie [antelope] or young red deer 
[elk], close about the neck and hanging to the middle 
of the thigh; the sleeves are of the same, loose and open 
under the arms to the elbows, but thence to the wrists 
sewed tight. The cap is commonly a piece of leather, or 
skin with the hair on, shaped to fit the head, and tied 
under the chin ; the top is usually decorated with feathers 
or other ornament. Shoes are made of buffalo hide dressed 
in the hair, and mittens of the same. Over the whole a 
buffalo robe is thrown, which serves as covering day and 
night. Such is their common dress; but on particular 
occasions they appear to greater advantage, having their 
cap, shirt, leggings, and shoes perfectly clean and white, 
trimmed with porcupine-quills and other ingenious work 
of their women, who are supposed to be the most skilful 
hands in the country at decorations of this kind. Their 
dress consists of the same materials as the men's. Their 
leggings do not reach above the knee, and are gathered 
below that joint; their shoes always lack decoration. The 
shift or body-garment reaches down to the calf, where it 
is generally fringed and trimmed with quill- work; the 
upper part is fastened over the shoulders by strips of 
leather; a flap or cape hangs down about a foot before 
and behind, and is ornamented with quill-work and fringe. 
This covering is quite loose, but tied around the waist with 
a belt of stiff parchment, fastened on the side, where also 
some ornaments are suspended. The sleeves are detached 
from the body-garment; from the wrist to the elbow they 
are sewed, but thence to the shoulder they are open under- 
neath and drawn up to the neck, where they are fastened 



122 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

across the breast and back. Their ornaments are two or 
three coils of brass wire twisted around the rim of each 
ear, in which incisions are made for the purpose; blue 
beads, brass rings, quill-work, and fringe occasionally 
answer. Vermilion is much used by the women to paint 
the face. Their hair is generally parted on the crown, and 
fastened behind each ear in large knots, from which are 
suspended bunches of blue beads, or other ingenious work 
of their own. The men adjust their hair in various forms; 
some have it parted on top and tied in a tail on each 
side, while others make one long queue which hangs down 
behind, and around which is twisted a strip of otter skin 
or dressed buffalo entrails. This tail is frequently in- 
creased in thickness and length by adding false hair, but 
others allow it to flow loose naturally. Combs are seldom 
used by the men, and they never smear the hair with 
grease, but red earth is sometimes put upon it. White 
earth daubed over the hair generally denotes mourning. 
The young men sometimes have a bunch of hair on the 
crown, about the size of a small teacup, and nearly in 
the shape of that vessel upside down, to which they fasten 
various ornaments of feathers, quill-work, ermine tails, 
etc. Red and white earth and charcoal are much used in 
their toilets; with the former they usually daub their 
robes and other garments, some red and others white. 
The women comb their hair and use grease on it." 

At these Plains posts the traders were greatly troubled 
by Indian horse thieves. Henry's pages are full of ref- 
erences to losses of this sort. In the autumn of 1809 
when Henry was stationed at Fort Vermilion, the white 
men had the good fortune to capture a Cree who at- 
tempted to make off with some of their horses. The man 
was a notorious thief and murderer, and the traders re- 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 123 

solved to make an example of him. A sort of trial was 
held, and the Indian was found guilty. In the morning 
of the next day he was led down to the river bank below 
the Hudson's Bay house and was shot down by a firing 
squad of fifteen men. 

For some years Henry shifted up and down the Sas- 
katchewan from one post to another, trading with the 
Crees, Bloods, Blackfeet, Sarcees, Slaves, Assiniboines, 
Piegans, and other tribes. He had many dangerous ex- 
periences, and tells many tales of these and of the brutal 
conflicts between the Indians themselves. It was to the 
interest of the traders to keep the tribes at peace with 
one another, but often they found the task beyond their 
power. 

For a time he was stationed at Rocky Mountain House 
on the North Saskatchewan in the foothills of the moun- 
tains. He gives very full details of the natives and 
natural wonders of the place, and describes vast beds of 
coal which he saw in the river banks. It is only now 
that we are beginning to realize that in this region there 
exists one of the greatest coal deposits in the world. 

In the late winter of 181 1 he made a hard trip with 
snowshoes and sleds through Howse Pass over the great 
divide to the head of a stream flowing into the Columbia. 
He was not, however, the first man to do this, as we shall 
see a little later. On this trip he saw and obtained speci- 
mens of the famous bighorn sheep. He also saw bands 
of the little known white goats, but they were upon such 
inaccessible cliffs and peaks that neither he nor any of 
his hunters were able to kill one. 

The Indians west of the mountains made an excellent 
kind of bow out of slips of the horns of the sheep. The 
outside of the horn was left undressed but was overlaid 



124 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

with several layers of sinew glued to the thickness of a 
third of an inch and then covered with rattlesnake skin. 
The inside of the bow was smoothly polished and dis- 
played several ridges of the horn. The bows were 
three feet long and would throw an arrow an amazing 
distance. The arrows were longer than those used by 
the plains Indians, were well feathered, and in the past 
had been tipped with flint but in more recent years with 
iron. These bows were held in such esteem that a plains 
Indian would sometimes trade a gun or a horse for one 
of them. 

While stationed at the Rocky INIountain House Henry 
bought of an Indian a large black dog, " of a breed be- 
tween a hound and a Newfoundland," which had been 
captured by a raiding party that had plundered and mur- 
dered some American traders in the Missouri country. 
The dog would not permit the Indians to hitch him to a 
sled, and he, therefore, came to the post perfectly light 
and free. " He entered my house," says Henry, " with- 
out any ceremony, looked about, jumped and fawned 
upon us, and would not return to the Indian tents. His 
master had to take him away with a line, and keep him 
tied to a tentpole, where a wolfskin was spread for him 
to lie upon. On their going away I purchased him for 
a fathom of tobacco and a scalper, and the poor beast 
was rejoiced to remain with us." 

In 1 813 Henry crossed the continent and established 
himself near the mouth of the Columbia at Astoria, the 
post founded a few years before by the celebrated John 
Jacob Astor. Here, as agent of the Northwest Company, 
he dealt with the Chinook tribes, and was associated with 
many of the characters made familiar by Washington 
Irving 's Astoria. He has much to say of salmon, sea 



ADVENTURES OF ALEXANDER HENRY 125 

lions, commass, and other products of the region. He 
was present when the British man-of-war Raccoon seized 
the post and substituted the Union Jack for the Stars and 
Stripes — temporarily, it proved. Here Henry ended 
his adventurous career, for on May 22, 1814, a sailboat 
in which he and half a dozen others were going from the 
post to a ship called the Isaac Todd was upset and Henry 
and all the others except one man perished. 



CHAPTER IX 

METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 

Ours is an age of rapid transit. The Atlantic has been 
crossed by steamer in less than five days and by airplane 
in sixteen hours and twelve minutes. Express trains 
whisk a traveler from New York to Chicago, and the trip 
across the continent can be made in less than a week. 
Men think nothing of motoring forty, fifty, or even a 
hundred miles to fill a dinner engagement. 

So accustomed have we become to the virtual annihila- 
tion of space that it is difficult for us to understand and 
appreciate the tremendous difficulties which the early 
explorers of America faced. In reading about their trials 
we must recall that there were then no steam engines or 
electric motors, no telegraphs or telephones, that travel on 
water must be performed by wind power or hand power, 
that travel on land must be on foot or at best on the 
backs of horses, that there were no roads or even trails, 
that the supply of food was always precarious, and that 
in the wilderness lurked savage beasts and even more 
savage and dangerous men. A journey across the At- 
lantic was then an affair of months not days, while that 
across the continent required years and was not per- 
formed until three hundred years after Columbus found 
the New World. 

Take, for example, the matter of food. The amount 
that can be carried in a canoe or on pack-horses is limited 
to a few months' supply at most. If the traveler starts 

126 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 127 

out on foot with a pack-sack, he can take with him, in 
addition to his gun, blanket, and other necessary articles, 
a supply for only a week or two; and if he is penetrating 
into the wilderness there are no stores at which he can 
buy more. Of course, in a new country fish can some- 
times be caught or game killed, but it is dangerous to 
depend upon doing either. I recall that once in the moun- 
tains of northern British Columbia my French Canadian 
helper and I were seven days from our canoe and cache; 
we had hunted along the way and had seen some moun- 
tain goats but had killed nothing except a Franklin's 
grouse; and the food in our pack-sacks was down to two 
or three cups of flour and corn meal, a bit of bacon the 
size of one's hand, and a little tea and salt. In this case 
all turned out happily, for the next day I killed a bear 
and the next day two mountain sheep, so that we had an 
abundance of meat; but, had we not found game, we 
would have been forced to starve for several days on 
our way back to the canoe and cache. 

The slow rate of travel in pioneer days is another mat- 
ter that can scarcely be understood by those who are 
accustomed only to motor cars and express trains and who 
have never journeyed under primitive conditions. To-day 
one can be whisked by train from Montreal to the north- 
western shore of Lake Superior in thirty-six hours; 
La Verendrye and his party were seventy-two days mak- 
ing the same journey in their birch canoes. The trip 
from the Canadian plains across the mountains to the 
Pacific can be made by the Canadian Pacific or the 
Grand Trunk Pacific in twenty-seven hours; it was an 
affair of months of toilsome and dangerous effort in Mac- 
kenzie's time. 

Again a personal experience may be helpful. One 



128 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

September morning ten years ago our pack-train, which 
had just left Edson, then track's end on the new Grand 
Trunk Pacific, came out upon a bluff overlooking the 
McLeod River in western Alberta and we beheld before 
us the white-toothed summits of the Rockies towering 
hisjh beyond the green sea of spruce-covered foothills. 
Off to the southwest stood one whose summit resembled 
the roof of a great house. 

" De sheep lick is dere," said Jimmy Paul, our Cree 
guide; " maybe you get some bighorns dere." 

The mountain did not seem so very far away, but it 
took us nine weary days to reach it. And I might add 
that when we got back to Edson on the return, it took 
me only five days to make the trip by train back to my 
home in Indiana. 

In the Fur Land long trips in summer were generally 
made by boat or canoe and in winter by dog sledge. In 
the Plains region at all seasons of the year much use was 
also made of horses. 

Supplies and trading goods were brought in during the 
summer either by way of the Great Lakes or Hudson 
Bay. In either case long river journeys were required to 
bring them to the region of Lake Winnipeg, and those 
destined for posts farther west were then taken up the 
Saskatchewan and thence scattered by other streams to 
posts on the Mackenzie, Peace, and elsewhere. 

It was a slow trade, and those who engaged in it had 
to wait a long time for their profits. Alexander Mac- 
kenzie tells us that in his day the Canadian agents of his 
Comnanv were obliged to order their goods from England 
in October, eighteen months before they could leave 
Montreal. The goods would arrive in Canada the follow- 
ing summer, and during the next winter they would be 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 129 

made up into such articles as the Indians desired and 
would be packed into parcels of about ninety pounds each. 
In the following May the bundles would be started in 
birch canoes for the Northwest by way of the St. 
Lawrence, the Ottawa, Lake Nipissing, French River, 
Lake Huron, Lake Superior, Rainy Lake, Lake Winnipeg, 
and the Saskatchewan River. Many portages had to be 
made along the way, and months elapsed before the goods 
reached their destination. They were then exchanged for 
furs, which, in the words of Mackenzie, " come to 
Montreal the next fall, and from thence are shipped, 
chiefly to London, where they are not sold or paid for 
before the succeeding spring, or even as late as June; 
which is forty-two months after the goods were ordered 
in Canada; thirty-six after they were shipped from Eng- 
land, and twenty-four after they had been forwarded from 
Montreal." Indeed in the case of a few of the most re- 
mote fur posts twelve months longer were required, which 
meant a period of almost five years between the time the 
goods were ordered and when the furs were finally sold. 
Such trade called for large capital, and the interest charge 
was, of course, very heavy. 

The articles most in demand for the Indian trade con- 
sisted chiefly of coarse woolen cloths, blankets, arms, 
ammunition, tobacco, linens, coarse sheetings, thread, 
lines, twine, knives, axes, brass and copper kettles, hand- 
kerchiefs, and spirituous liquors. 

In Mackenzie's time a tj^Dical year's trade in furs by 
way of Canada included 106,000 beaver skins, 2,100 
bear skins, 41,500 fox skins, 4,600 otter skins, 17,000 
musquash skins, 32,000 marten skins, 500 buffalo robes, 
6,000 lynx skins, 600 wolverine skins, 1,650 fisher skins, 
3,800 wolf skins, 750 elk skins, and 1,950 deer skins. In 



I30 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

addition, the Hudson's Bay Company took out many 
more by way of Hudson Bay. 

At the time the Hudson's Bay Company was compet- 
ing with the Northwest Company it made use in large 
measure of heavy wooden boats to transport its goods 
to and from the interior. These craft had the advan- 
tage of great strength, and they could endure many hard 
knocks, but it was hard work to move them upstream or 
across portages. 

The Northwest Company generally used birchbark 
canoes, and after the consolidation of the two companies 
in 182 1 this craft became popular with all the traders. 
Some of these canoes were as much as ninety feet long, 
though thirty-six feet was a more common length. All 
were capable of carrying a very heavy load. At the same 
time they were comparatively light, were easily tracked 
or poled upstream,- and, compared with the wooden boats, 
it was child's play to carry them over a portage. Their 
great weakness was that they were very easily injured. 
If one so much as touched a rock or snag, a leak was 
almost inevitable. Every canoe carried a supply of birch- 
bark, gum, and fibrous roots of spruce or cedar called 
" watape," for putting on patches, and hardly a day 
would pass that they must not be used. The journals of 
the explorers and early fur traders are full of accounts 
of " breaking " canoes and of delays spent in repairing 
them. Many of the canoes were fancifully painted on 
bow and stern with mystical figures that were supposed 
to increase the speed of the craft. 

Some of the canoe-men were Scotchmen or Orkneymen, 
but during most of the nineteenth century by far the 
greater number were French Canadians and half-breeds. 
The French Canadian and half-breed voyageurs were a 



wm^ 








METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 131 

happy-go-lucky set, content with the world if their 
stomachs were full of grub and their pipes full of tobacco. 
Although most of them were usually deeply in debt to the 
Company, they would paddle gaily over lakes and down 
rivers singing boat-songs, some of them brought over 
from France generations before. They were very fond 
of bright-colored clothing, and their appearance was most 
picturesque. Such a man would paddle all day and dance 
all night and was ready, whenever opportunity offered, 
to drink strong waters as long as the supply lasted. 

Let us follow for a little while a brigade of such canoes 
as it leaves a Hudson's Bay fort on the border in the year 
1830 for a post farther west. The fort itself is sur- 
rounded by a palisade of logs set on end in the ground 
and about twelve feet high, the stockade being flanked 
at each corner with a two-story bastion, also of logs, from 
loopholes in the walls of which a flanking fire can be 
delivered against any assailants. Within the stockade 
stand the log storehouses and living quarters, and over 
all towers a flagstaff from which floats the Company's 
flag, bearing the motto " Pro pelle cutem" which means, 
" Skin for skin." 

At the edge of the river threescore men have launched 
a dozen birchbark canoes and are loading into them 
freight packages, blankets, guns, kettles, and other para- 
phernalia. During this process great care is taken to 
prevent the canoes from touching anything except the 
water, for a scrape even against the gravel of the bottom 
may start a leak. The swarthy voyageurs, resplendent 
in scarlet sashes, beaded moose-hide moccasins, and 
colored kerchiefs tied turban-fashion round their heads, 
step lightly into the canoes, the bowman being the last to 
enter. The canoes are then shoved out into the current 



132 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

and fall into irregular line, one behind the other. Pipes 
are lighted, the paddles dip in rhythm, there are parting 
shouts and salutes to those left behind, and the flotilla 
swings round a bend on its long westward journey. 

The tall trees on shore seem marching past in stately 
procession, while ahead flocks of ducks reluctantly take 
wing and fly downstream, to repeat the process again 
and again every mile or so. Presently some one starts 
up a lively chanson a Vaviron known as The White Rose, 
and the chorus echoes from bank to bank of the silent 
river and up through the spruce-covered hills: 

*' Je n'ai pas frouve personne 

Que le rossignol chantant la belle rose, 

La belle rose du rosier blanc! 
Qui me dit dans son langage 
Marie-tot, car il est temps, a la belle rose, 

A la belle rose du rosier blanc! 
Comment veux-tu que je me marie avec la belle rose, 

La belle rose du rosier blanc? 
Mon pere n'est pas content de la belle rose, 

De la belle rose du rosier blanc! 

Ni mon pere, ni mon mhre, 
Ni aucun de mes parents. 

La belle rose du rosier blanc! " 

For miles all is easy going, then a roar is heard ahead 
which gradually grows louder and louder. The current 
quickens, and across the stream from shore to shore 
stretches a long reach of turbulent white water. The 
bowman in the foremost canoe stands up and takes a 
careful survey of the rapid. It is full of jagged rocks 
and to the uninitiated eye there seems no possible pas- 




Fruni a photogyapli hy ]'. C. S'u\ninrll 

Portaging a dugout canoe on the Upper Finlay River 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 133 

sage, but the experienced eye of the bowman quickly 
picks out a practicable route, and he indicates it to the 
steersman, who, as the craft draws nearer, also stands up 
and studies the situation. Now they are in white water, 
and the canoe goes glancing downward almost with the 
speed of an arrow. Destruction seems imminent more 
than once, but the crew are fully masters of the situation, 
and deft paddling at the proper time enables them to 
avoid all obstacles. Soon they are riding safely in the 
eddy at the foot of the rapids and are commenting 
critically upon the expertness of the crews behind them. 

To run rapids that may to a green hand look extremely 
dangerous is to experienced canoe-men mere child's play. 
More dangerous rapids call for close attention, and the 
right thing must be done at exactly the right moment. 
Occasionally rapids are met that only the boldest and 
most expert will attempt, and even they occasionally 
come to grief. 

Towards noon the flotilla comes to a spot where the 
river narrows and swings between high rocky banks and 
then goes plunging over a ledge twenty feet in height. A 
portage must be made. While most of the men are carry- 
ing the goods and canoes along a well-worn track two 
hundred yards in length, the cooks build fires and cook 
the midday meal. This eaten, the flotilla is off again, to 
camp that evening in some favorable spot. So goes the 
journey, day after day, down the river and through great 
lakes until at last the mouth of the great Saskatchewan 
is reached. 

Then the real journey begins. Only in comparatively 
still water is it possible to advance upstream by paddling. 
Poles shod with iron are brought into use, and in the 
really swift stretches men walk ahead on shore tracking 



134 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

the canoes, that is, pulling them along with ropes. This 
poling and tracking work is terribly exhausting, and when 
camp is made at night there is much less merriment and 
hilarity than was the case on the downstream journey. 

As winter draws on there is a period when travel by 
any method is difficult and disagreeable. There is enough 
ice running in the rivers to prohibit navigation by boats 
or canoes, while the snow on land is not yet deep enough 
for sledging. But presently winter closes down in 
earnest; deep snows cover the ground; the rivers and 
lakes freeze so solid that it is safe to travel on them. 
Meanwhile old snowshoes have been restrung with 
babiche, as the strings of caribou or moose hide are 
called, or new ones are made altogether; sledges and dog 
harness are put in order. Then it is that the dogs which 
have spent the summer prowling about the cabins of 
the half-breeds, snatching up everything eatable that 
comes in their way, fighting each other, and usually 
half-starving in preparation for the hard work ahead, 
come in demand. 

These dogs are of almost every breed or a mixture of 
almost every breed. In the far north one sees occasion- 
ally the pure husky of the Eskimos, with bushy tails, long 
hair, fox-shaped heads, and sharp-pointed ears. But 
most sledge dogs are mere curs, without any pride of 
ancestry. They are " large, long-legged, and wolfish, with 
sharp muzzles, pricked ears, and thick, straight, wiry 
hair. White is one of the most usual colors, but brown, 
blue-gray, red, yellow, and white marked with spots of 
black, or of the other various hues, are also common. 
Some of them are black with white paws, others are cov- 
ered with long rough hair, like Russian setters. There 
are others of a light bluish-gray, with dark, almost black 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 135 

spots spread over the whole body. Almost all of them 
have black noses, but with some of the lighter-colored 
ones this part is red, brown, or pink, which has a very 
ugly effect. Most of them are very wolfish in appear- 
ance, many being half or partly, or all but entirely, wolves 
in blood. One frequently sees dark-gray dogs which are 
said to be almost pure wolves. Seen upon the prairie, it 
is almost impossible to distinguish them from the ordinary 
wolf of the middle-sized variety; and their tempers are 
spoken of as a match for their looks." 

In summer the dogs are generally left to shift for them- 
selves and, as has already been said, lead a miserable, 
half-starved existence. But by experience their masters 
have learned that dogs cannot work without eating, and 
in winter more attention is paid to providing them with 
food. Meat of any kind, pemmican, or whatever offers, 
is given them; one of the commonest kinds of dog food 
is dried whitefish. The food is doled out to the dogs 
every evening, hardly ever enough to satisfy their wolfish 
appetites; it is only when moose, caribou, or other big 
game is killed that the poor beasts are likely to have a 
real " feed." When their rations are tossed to them, 
they bolt the food as fast as they can swallow it, partly 
in the hope that they may be able to steal something 
from slower comrades; at feeding time, therefore, it is 
necessary for the drivers to stand ready with whips and 
clubs to see that each dog has his share. When really 
hungry, some dogs will eat their harness or even gnaw 
holes in the lodges. 

Food for the dogs forms one of the grave problems on 
long trips through unsettled country. A dog will eat in 
about two weeks all that he can pull; hence that length 
of time forms about the limit to a dog-sledge journey 



136 TRATLMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

unless food can be bought along the way or fish caught 
or game killed. Some Arctic explorers, Peary for exam- 
ple, use the plan of killing the weaker dogs and feeding 
them to their comrades, when the supply of dog food 
becomes low. Sometimes it has happened that at the 
end of a long journey the dogs will have eaten not only 
all the food but also most of their fellows. 

The sledges used are of various kinds. Some have 
runners, but those in use in the Northwest are generally 
of the toboggan kind. A common way to make a sledge 
of the last sort is to take a board of hard-wood about 
half an inch thick, fifteen or twenty inches wide, and 
eight or ten feet long, steam and bend one end up in the 
form of a half circle. Sometimes two narrower boards 
are used instead of one. To this board a light boxlike 
frame is lashed with rawhide, if the sled is intended to 
carry a passenger, and this box is lined with furs or 
blankets to keep the occupant warm. If designed pri- 
marily for freight purposes, however, a wrapper of moose 
or caribou hide may be lashed to the board, the load is 
stowed inside this, and then the wrapper is laced on top, 
so that, in case of a capsize, nothing can fall out and all 
that is necessary is for the driver to right the sledge. 

The dog harness varies greatly from rude thongs of 
rawhide to gaily ornamented outfits of leather, with 
buckles and other supposed improvements. For travel- 
ing on ice the dogs may be hitched abreast, but in the 
woods or all broken country they must be placed in 
tandem fashion. Naturally the position of leading dog 
is most important, and this place is assigned to the best- 
trained animal in the team. When the snow is deep, one 
man goes ahead on snowshoes and breaks trail. This is 
laborious work, and turns are taken at it. 




fc 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 137 

Driving a dog team is an art in itself. Nothing can 
be more ludicrous than the attempts of a tenderfoot to 
drive a sledge. The dogs are naturally perverse, even 
under expert management, and when they realize that 
the driver does not understand his task, they will fight, get 
tangled up in the traces, and do any number of other 
provoking things, usually ending up by overturning the 
sledge. The following passage, from Robinson's The 
Great Fur Land, pictures some of the trials which the 
traveler by dog-sledge must expect to experience: 

" To assist his own locomotion, the traveler ties on 
his largest pair of snowshoes, say five feet long and fifteen 
inches wide. A man can walk much faster on snowshoes, 
with a fair track, than on the best road without them; 
but when the trail is frozen perfectly hard, the traveler 
casts them off, and runs behind the dogs, who are able 
to gallop at great speed along the slippery path; and in 
this manner the most extraordinary journeys have been 
made. With a crack of the whip, and a harsh command 
to the dogs, the train moves off. After that, a perpetual 
shouting and cursing, cracking of whips and howling of 
dogs, seem necessary to keep the cavalcade in motion. 
And it is scarcely to be wondered at when one comes to 
consider the conduct of the dogs at the very beginning 
of the journey. 

" The start is generally made at a very early hour in 
the morning; for the traveler invariably accomplishes a 
good portion of his day's tramp before breakfast. It is, 
say, two long hours before daybreak when the dogs are 
put in harness. It is a morning of bitter cold; a faint old 
moon hangs low down in the east ; over the dreary stretch 
of snow-covered plain a shadowy Aurora flickers across 
the stars; it is all as wild and cheerless a spectacle as 



138 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

the eye can look upon; and the work of getting the un- 
willing dogs in their harness is done by the half-breeds 
in no very amiable mood. In the haste and darkness 
of the time but scant attention is given to getting the 
cowering brutes into their proper places in the traces. In 
consequence, when the traveler assumes charge of his 
sledge, an ominous tendency to growl and fight tells him 
that something is wrong in his train. It is too dark to 
see plainly, but a touch of the cold nose of the leader 
informs him that the right dog is in the wrong place. It 
is too late, however, to rectify the mistake; the half- 
breeds are already off, and the sound of their dire 
anathemas grows fainter and fainter upon the ear. So 
the whip is mercilessly applied, and, amid the yells of 
the unhappy brutes, the sledge grinds slowly off through 
the frozen snow. 

" But the memory of that mistake rankles in the breast 
of the foregoer; and just when a steady pace is attained, 
and peace seems to have returned to the train, he sud- 
denly countermarches in the harness, and prostrates the 
unoffending stecrdog at his post. The attack, too, is 
made with so much suddenness and vigor that the won- 
dering victim — who is perfectly contented with the 
change, having thereby won the easiest place in the train 
— instantly capitulates, and ' turns a turtle ' in his traces. 
The trouble might end here but for the fact that the 
unlooked-for assault is generally accompanied by a flank 
movement on the part of the two middle dogs, who, when 
there is any fighting lying around, are pretty sure to have 
a tooth in on their own account. And having no par- 
ticular grudge to take out, but only mad on general 
principles, they are equally indifferent in attacking the 
head of the rear dog or the tail of the one in front. This 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 139 

condition of things naturally leads to fearful confusion 
in the train; they jump on one another; they tangle their 
traces, and back-bands, and collar-straps, into inex- 
tricable knots and intcrlacings, which baffle the stiffened 
fingers of the angry traveler to unravel. Frequently they 
roll themselves into one huge ball, presenting the appear- 
ance of a hydra-headed dog, with multitudinous legs and 
innumerable tails. The rapid application of the whip 
only seems to make matters worse — conveying the idea 
to each infuriated dog that he is being badly bitten by 
an unknown antagonist. The traveler, having tried 
everything else, and with patience entirely gone, at last 
in sheer despair, but unwittingly, follows the example of 
the poet of Perth, who ' stoode in ta middle of ta roade 
and swoore at lairge'; having a faint idea, nevertheless, 
that he is in no way capable of doing justice to the sub- 
ject. The effect, however, is magical; the confused train 
straightens out under illimitable imprecation, with a 
celerity clearly illustrating the manner of its early train- 
ing. As for the bewildered traveler, he has unwittingly 
discovered the true secret of dog-driving." 

When curses did not suffice, blows were used, and there 
was no limit to the cruelty to which many Indians and 
half-breeds and even some white men would go when 
enraged at their dogs. The pages of books written by 
travelers in the Northwest are filled with passages 
describing scenes of this kind. Witness the following 
passages from Colonel Butler's The Great Lone Land: 

" Coffee, Tete Noir, Michinass, and another whose 
name I forget, underwent repeated whalings at the hands 
of my driver, a half-breed from Edmonton named Frazer. 
Early in the afternoon the head of Tete Noir was reduced 
to shapeless pulp from tremendous thrashings. Michinass, 



I40 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

or the ' Spotted One/ had one eye wherewith to watch 
the dreaded driver, and Coffee had devoted so much 
strength to wild lurches and sudden springs in order to 
dodge the descending whip, that he had none whatever 
to bestow upon his legitimate toil of hauling me. At 
length, so useless did he become, that he had to be taken 
out altogether from the harness and left to his fate on 
the river. 'And this,' I said to myself, ' is dog-driving; 
this inhuman thrashing and varied cursing, this frantic 
howling of dogs, this bitter, terrible cold is the long- 
talked-of mode of winter travel ! ' " 

A day or two later Colonel Butler " witnessed the first 
example of a very common occurrence in dog-driving — 
I beheld the operation known as ' sending a dog to Rome.' 
This consists simply of striking him over the head with 
a large stick until he falls perfectly senseless to the 
ground; after a little he revives, and, with memory of the 
awful blows that took his consciousness away full upon 
him, he pulls frantically at his load. Oftentimes a dog 
is ' sent to Rome ' because he will not allow the driver 
to arrange some hitch in the harness; then, while he is 
insensible, the necessary alteration is carried out, and 
when the dog recovers he receives a terrible lash of the 
whip to set him going again. The half-breeds are a race 
easily offended, prone to sulk if reproved; but at the risk 
of causing delay and inconvenience I had to interfere with 
a peremptory order that ' sending to Rome ' should be at 
once discontinued in my trains. The wretched ' Whiskey,' 
after his voyaa:e to the Eternal City, appeared quite over- 
come with what he had there seen, and continued to 
stagger along the trail, making feeble efforts to keep 
straight. This tendency to wobble caused the half-breeds 
to indulge in funny remarks, one of them calling the 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 141 

track a ' drunken trail.' Finally, ' Whiskey ' was aban- 
doned to his fate "; that is, he was left to die of starva- 
tion and cold on the blizzard-swept plains. However, the 
next night the poor dog managed to stagger into camp, 
" for, after all, there was one fate worse than being ' sent 
to Rome,' and that was being left to starve." 

It is true that many of the sledge dogs were wild and 
wolfish, yet there were few that would not respond to 
kind treatment. Colonel Butler himself made the ex- 
periment. " From the camp of Chicag," says he, " I had 
driven my own train of dogs, with Bear the sole com- 
panion of the journey. Nor were these days on the great 
lakes [Winnipegoosis, Winnipeg, and Manitoba] by any 
means the dullest of the journey, Cerf Volant, Tigre, 
Cariboo, and Muskeymote gave ample occupation to their 
driver. Long before Manitoba was reached they had 
learned a new lesson — that men were not all cruel in camp 
or on the road. It is true that in the learning of that 
lesson some little difficulty was occasioned by the sudden 
loosening and disruption of ideas implanted by genera- 
tions of cruelty in the dog-mind of my train. It is true 
that Muskeymote, in particular, long held aloof from 
offers of friendship, and then suddenly passed from the 
excess of caution to the extreme of imprudence, imagin- 
ing, doubtless, that the millennium had at length arrived, 
and that dogs were henceforth no more to haul. But 
Muskeymote was soon set right upon that point, and 
showed no inclination to repeat his mistake. Then there 
was Cerf Volant, that most perfect Esquimaux. Cerf 
Volant entered readily into friendship, upon an under- 
standing of an additional half-fish at supper every eve- 
ning. No alderman ever loved his turtle better than did 
Cerf Volant love his whitefish; but I rather think that 



142 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

the whitefish was better earned than the turtle — however, 
we will let that be a matter of opinion. Having satisfied 
his hunger, which, by-the-way, is a luxury only allowed 
the hauling-dog once a day, Cerf Volant would generally 
establish himself in close proximity to my feet, frequently 
on the top of the bag, from which coign of vantage he 
would exchange fierce growls with any dog who had 
the temerity to approach us." 

Cerf Volant was, in fact, a most unusual dog. He 
was so big and strong that he won from his admiring 
master the epithet of " The Untiring." He not only 
served Butler on a long sledge trip in the Great Lone 
Land in the winter of 1870-71, but the next year he ac- 
companied him on an exhausting journey from Red River 
to the Pacific. After helping for thousands of miles to 
pull his master's sleigh, he reached civilization at last and 
made the yet longer journey to California and thence 
across the Continent to Boston. 

" The Untiring took readily to civilization ; he looked 
at Shasta, he sailed on the Columbia River, he climbed 
the dizzy ledges of the Yosemite, he gazed at the Golden 
Gate and saw the sun sink beyond the blue waves of the 
great Salt Lake, but none of these scenes seemed to effect 
him in the slightest degree. He journeyed in the boot 
or on the roof of a stage-coach for more than eight hun- 
dred miles; he was weighed once as extra baggage, and 
classified and charged as such; he conducted himself with 
all possible decorum in the rooms and corridors of the 
grand hotel at San Francisco; he crossed the continent 
in a railway carriage to Montreal and Boston, as though 
he had been a first-class passenger since childhood; he 
thought no more of the reception-room of Brigham 
Young in Utah, than had he been standing on a snow- 




X 



METHODS OF TRAVEL IN THE FUR LAND 143 

drift in Athabasca Lake; he was duly photographed and 
petted and pampered, but he took it all as a matter of 
course. There were, however, two facts in civilization 
which caused him unutterable astonishment — a brass 
band and a butcher's stall. He fled from the one; he 
howled with delight before the other." 

Four miles an hour is about the usual pace of dogs 
dragging a well-loaded sledge over t)rdinary snow, and 
forty miles is not unusual in a day of ten hours. Sixty 
to eighty miles with a light sledge upon a smooth snow- 
crust or a well-beaten track have often been made. One 
hears in the North of even more extraordinary journeys. 
For example, a young Scotch half-breed at Fort Garry, 
now Winnipeg, was desirous of attending the wedding of 
his sister at that place, and made the round trip from 
Fort Garry to Pembina, one hundred and thirty miles, 
with the mail sledge, drawn by a single team of dogs, in 
fourteen hours. 

When parties of white men traveled for long distances 
on horseback, the baggage was carried on the backs of 
horses taken along for that purpose. Much skill was re- 
quired in tying the baggage on the pack-saddles, and 
various styles of loops and knots were evolved, such as 
the " squaw hitch," the " diamond hitch," etc. Travel 
with a pack-train is always slow, but if time is no object, 
long distances can be covered in this way, for the horses 
can pick up their own feed at the camping places, and 
the amount of supplies that can be carried is limited only 
by the number of beasts of burden taken. Furthermore, 
a pack-train can penetrate into rough country where it 
would be impossible to take a wagon. 

In the Red River region the half-breeds made large use 
of a two-wheeled cart that was drawn by a horse or ox. 



144 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Henry, in his Journal, describes the making of one of 
these, perhaps the first ever built. Ordinarily no iron 
whatever was used in their manufacture. They consisted 
of a sort of box mounted on two immense, wooden wheels, 
and had rough shafts in front. As the axles were rarely 
or never greased, the protesting shrieks of the carts could 
be heard on still days for miles. The half-breeds ex- 
plained their not using grease by saying they did not 
wish to steal up silently upon anybody. 

The Plains Indians did much of their traveling with 
horses. They, too, evolved a rude sort of conveyance 
known by the French as a travois, but variously called 
travail, travaille, traverse, and travee. This consisted of 
two poles, one end of each of which was lashed to the 
sides of a horse, while the opposite ends dragged on the 
ground. Cross-pieces were lashed between the poles, and 
hides were stretched over these cross-pieces and between 
the poles in such a way as to form a sort of litter in 
which persons could ride or goods be placed. At the rear 
of any band of Indians on the march there was likely to 
be a number of these travailles, drawn usually by old, 
broken-down ponies. In the same travois the spectator 
might see an aged squaw, two or three beady-eyed chil- 
dren not yet old enough to bestride a pony, and perhaps 
a bag of pemmican. 



CHAPTER X 

HOW THE RED RIVER HALF-BREEDS HUNTED 
THE BUFFALOES 

The traders and settlers in the region of the Red River 
of the North early discovered, as we have seen in our 
account of Alexander Henry, that potatoes and other agri- 
cultural products could be grown in great profusion. 
Selkirk's Scotch colonists, of whom more will be said^ 
hereafter, and to a much smaller extent the French 
Canadian settlers also cultivated the soil. But farming 
is a prosaic occupation; even the raising of cattle seems 
somewhat dull when on the wide plains not far away 
roam tens of thousands of animals of the bovine tribe 
that may be had for the killing. It was only human 
nature, therefore, that the European settlers and still 
more their half-breed descendants should revert in large 
measure to primitive methods of obtaining a livelihood. 
Out of this situation there developed what H. M. Robin- 
son in his fascinating book. The Great Fur Land, calls 
'"'the most perfectly-organized, effective, and picturesque 
periodically-recurring hunting-excursions known to any 
nomadic peoples." From his graphic pages the material 
for this chapter is largely taken. 

Two hunts were made a year, one beginning about the 
first of June, the second about the end of August. The 
latter, the great fall hunt, is the one we shall describe. 

Some days before the appointed time the hunters and 
their families began to gather at the rendezvous, which 

145 



146 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

had previously been selected. A favorite gathering place 
was Pembina Mountain, which stands in the northeast 
corner of what is now North Dakota. Thither streamed 
along well-known trails long trains of creaking Red 
River carts, drawn by horses or oxen; the men, for the 
most part rode on horseback, while the carts were filled 
with women and black-eyed children; and many un- 
saddled horses, some of them well-trained buffalo run- 
ners, were led behind the carts or were driven along the 
trail. Some days before the appointed time the plain 
on the banks of the stream that runs by Pembina Moun- 
tain would be " covered with a motley grouping of carts, 
canvas tents, smoke-brown leather tepees, and, in lieu 
of other shelter, small squares of cotton or raw-hide 
stretched from cart to cart, or over a rough framework 
of poles. For miles around the prairie is alive with 
ponies, hoppled, tied to lariat pins, or dragging about 
poles as a preventive against straying. Mingled with this 
kicking, neighing herd wander hundreds of oxen — patient, 
lowing kine, the youthful vivacity of which has given 
place to middle-aged steadiness. Through this compact 
mass of animal life gallop with a wild scurry, from time 
to time, half-nude boys, breaking a narrow pathway in 
search of some needed ox or pony, or hurrying the whole 
struggling mass riverward. 

" In the camp the sole occupation of the day is the 
pursuit of pleasure. From every tent and shelter comes 
the sound of laughter; every camp-fire furnishes its quota 
of jest and song. Here a small but excited circle, gath- 
ered under the shade of a cart, are deeply engaged in 
gambling by what is known as the ' moccasin game.' In 
an empty moccasin are placed sundry buttons and bul- 
lets, which, being shaken up, involve the guessing of the 



HUNTING THE BUFFALOES 147 

number in the shoe. The ground is covered with guns, 
capotes, and shirts, the volatile half-breed often stripping 
the clothing from his back to satisfy his passion for play, 
or staking his last horse and cart. There another like- 
minded party are gambling with cards, the stakes being 
a medley of everything portable owned by the players. 
In many tents rum is holding orgy, and the clinking of 
cups, boisterous laughter and song, tell of the direst 
enemy of the hunter. In another quarter feasting is the 
order of the day, and the small stock of provisions, de- 
signed to supply the family until the buffalo were 
reached, is being devoured at a sitting. The host knows 
this; but, then, he selects a feast and its consequent 
famine. Yonder tawny Pyramus is making love to dusky 
Thisbe after the most approved fashion. They seem in- 
different to the exposure of the camp, and conduct their 
wooing as if no curious eyes were upon them. About 
the many camp-fires stand, or crouch, the wives of the 
hunters, busily engaged in culinary operations, or gossip- 
ing with neighbors, while their numerous scantily- 
attired offspring play about in the dust and dirt with 
wolfish-looking dogs. The baby of the family, fastened 
to a board, leans against a cart-wheel, doubtless revolv- 
ing in its infantile mind those subtile questions pertinent 
to babyhood." 

Elsewhere the aged leaders of the hunt might be seen 
congregated. Perched on the wheel of a cart farther on 
some " long-haired Paganini " would be " drawing rude 
melodies from a fractured violin," while about would be 
congregated a crowd of hearers, applauding each perform- 
ance or suggesting some favorite tune, and now and then 
engaging in " an improvised break-down, or executing a 
pas seul the very embodiment of caricature." " Above all 



148 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

rises the clamor of many tongues, speaking many lan- 
guages, the neighing of horses, the lowing of kine, the 
barking of hundreds of dogs, and the shouts and yells 
of fresh arrivals, as they pour hourly in to swell the num- 
bers of the already vast encampment." 

In the afternoon, if the weather was favorable, most 
of the people in the camp would gather on some level 
stretch of prairie outside, where a straightaway race 
course had been laid off. Well-known leaders of the hunt 
would be stationed at either end, and the racing would 
begin. " Betting runs high, the wagers of the principals 
being generally horse against horse, those of outsiders 
ranging from valuable horses down through carts and 
oxen to the clothing worn at the moment. All is excite- 
ment, and as the contestants dash forward, with that pe- 
culiar plunging of the heels into the flanks of the horses 
at every jump, affected by the plains-hunter, it breaks 
forth in cheers and gesticulations of encouragement to the 
favorite. All points of disagreement are quickly settled 
by the dictum of the umpires, and the loser quietly strips 
saddle and bridle from his much-prized animal, and con- 
soles himself for the loss in copious draughts of 
rum. . . . 

" Toward night the huge camp becomes again resonant 
with a more intense babel of sounds. The lucky winner 
on the race-course parades his gains, and depicts in 
graphic pantomime his share in the sports; while the loser 
bewails his losses in maudlin tones, or arranges the terms 
of a new race for the morrow. The betting of the after- 
noon is succeeded by the deeper gambling of the evening; 
and the sounds of shuffling cards, the clinking of the 
buttons and bullets of the moccasin-game, and the ex- 
clamations of triumph and despair of winner and loser, 



HUNTING THE BUFFALOES 149 

are everywhere heard. Rum flows freely; for each hunter 
brings a supply to tide him over the grand encampment, 
and start him fairly on his journey. As the night ad- 
vances, the camp grows more and more boisterous, the 
confusion worse confounded. The women disappear from 
the camp-fires, and betake themselves to tents out of 
harm's way. Drunken men reel about the flaming fires; 
wild yells fill the still air; quarrels are engendered; fierce 
invectives in many tongues roll from angry lips, and the 
saturnalia becomes general. The camp-fires light up the 
strange scene with a lurid glare, and tent, cart, and awn- 
ing, cast fantastic shadows over all. The orgy continues 
late in the night, and, when the fires flicker and die out, 
their last feeble glow reveals shadowy forms stretched 
promiscuously about, sleeping the sleep of drunkenness." 

On the day before setting out all the men would meet 
together and select a chief, counselors, captains, and 
guides. A code of rules would be drawn up by the chief 
and counselors. These rules usually prohibited any one 
from lagging behind or leaving the main body and in- 
variably forbade any person or party from running 
buffalo before the general order was given under which 
all could participate. This last rule was partly intended 
to prevent the buffaloes from being frightened out of the 
country by the precipitate action of a few individuals. 

On the morning of the appointed day the cavalcade 
of carts and horsemen, miles long, set out southwestward 
over the rolling prairie toward the hunting grounds. 
" Along the line of march are scattered the four cap- 
tains of the guard, who, with their men, keep order in 
the line. Here rides on a sleek runner the average hunter, 
in corduroy and capote, bronzed, sparsely bearded, 
volatile, and given to much gesticulation; next, an Indian, 



<i5o TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

pure and simple, crouched upon the back of his shaggy, 
unkempt pony, without saddle, and using a single cord 
as bridle — a blanketed, hatless, ' grave and reverend 
seignior,' speaking but seldom, and then only in mono- 
syllables; then a sandy-haired and canny Scot, clad in 
homespun, and with keen gray eyes wide open for the 
main chance^ eager for trade, but reckless and daring as 
any hunter of them all, bestriding a large-boned, well- 
accoutred animal, and riding it like a heavy dragoon; 
here, again, a pink-cheeked sprig of English nobility, 
doing the hunt from curiosity, and carefully watched over 
by a numerous retinue of servants and retainers. He 
has in his outfit all the latest patterns of arms, the most 
comprehensive camp-chests, and impedimenta enough for 
a full company of plain-hunters. From every covered 
cart in the long train peer the dusky faces of Phyllis and 
Thisbe, sometimes chatting gaily with the tawny cavaliers 
riding alongside; again engaged in quieting the demon- 
strations of a too lively progeny. . . . Ever5rwhere there 
is a glint of polished gun-barrels, a floating of parti- 
colored sashes, a reckless careering to and fro, a wild 
dash and scurry, a waving of blankets, shouts, dust, noise, 
and confusion." 

As the days pass the cavalcade may come upon small 
bands of buffalo feeding, but the rule against firing at 
them is strictly enforced. The object is to find the main 
herds, so that all may participate with equal chances 
and a great slaughter be accomplished. However, the 
longing for fresh meat occasionally proves too strong 
for hungry half-breeds, and a curious plan that does not 
infringe the rules is resorted to. Two well mounted 
hunters take a long rawhide rope, isolate a fat cow from 
the herd, entangle her legs in the rope so that she falls to 



HUNTING THE BUFFALOES 151 

the ground, and then they dispatch her with knives. 
The meat thus obtained furnishes variety and may also 
reheve actual hunger, for generally some of the hunters 
start on the trip without a sufficient supply of food. 

Meanwhile, the scouts have been scouring the country 
to right and left and ahead in search of the main herds. 
A day comes when a lucky scout returns with word that 
he has discovered one of them. The cavalcade turns in 
the direction he indicates, being careful to keep to wind- 
ward of the herd, and camp is made in some depression 
of the prairie not too close to the quarry. Guns are 
cleaned and examined, powder-flasks and bullet-pouches 
filled, saddles and bridles overhauled, and the best buffalo- 
runners are made ready. These valuable animals have 
been carefully cared for to be in readiness for the next 
day. 

Before break of day next morning the hunters mount 
and ride toward the herd. Advantage is taken of any 
bits of rising ground to approach as closely as possible. 
Finally when all is ready the chief of the hunt shouts, 
" Allez! allez! " A thousand reckless riders dash for- 
ward at a wild gallop. The buffaloes break away at a 
speed that is surprisingly swift for so cumbersome a 
beast, but the hunters are soon at the outskirts of the 
herd. Guns flash and roar, the wild yells of the eager 
hunters mingle with the hoarse bellows of wounded bulls, 
the dust rises in vast clouds, and the chase sweeps rapidly 
over the rolling prairie, leaving behind it many dead or 
mortally wounded buffaloes. Here, too, a pony has put 
his foot in a prairie dog's hole and has fallen, pitching 
his rider over his head. The half-breed has risen and 
while rubbing his own bruises contemplates ruefully his 
pony's broken leg. 



152 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

In shooting it is the custom to ride close up to a 
buffalo, place the muzzle of the gun almost against his 
hide, and fire without taking much aim. A shot in the 
short ribs ranging forward is a favorite one, and, if 
well placed, will soon bring the animal to the ground. 
The backbone is an even more deadly spot but is harder 
to hit. For the most part the hunters are using smooth- 
bore, flintlock guns. \\'hen they wish to reload they drop 
a handful of powder in the muzzle, take a bullet out of 
their mouths, and let it fall upon the powder; no patching 
is used, and the bullets are made small enough readily to 
roll in or out. A tap of the butt against the saddle will 
usually prime the weapon, and it is ready for use. Care 
must then be exercised to keep the muzzle pointing up 
else the bullet will roll out. and tlie muzzle must be de- 
pressed only an instant in taking aim. Occasionally the 
bullets roll nearly to the muzzle and a bursted gun re- 
sults when the weapon is fired, but this is not likely to 
take place unless the powder charge is too heavy. In 
every great hunt some man is more or less injured by 
such an explosion, and there are dozens of men who have 
lost fingers or thumbs or even a hand in this way. 

Behind the hunters follow the women and children with 
the heavy wooden carts, skinning and cutting up the 
game. The men, too. presently return from chasing the 
herd and help in the work. In a surprisingly short time 
the plain is strewn with skeletons stripped of their flesh. 
Some of the best of the meat is taken home in its natural 
state, for the weather is now so cool that the meat will 
keep indefinitely. Much of it, however, is dried in the 
sun or over fires, and a great deal is made into pemmican. 

In making pemmican the meat is first cut into thin 
slices and dried. It is then pounded into shreds with 



HUNTING THE BUFFALOES 153 

flails or between two stones. Bags of buffalo hide, with 
the hair outside, have been prepared, and each of these 
is half filled with the pounded meat. The tallow of the 
animals has meanwhile been boiled in huge kettles, and 
this is poured, while still hot, into the bags. The con- 
tents are then thoroughly mixed, after which more fat is 
poured on top. The bags are then sewed up, and the 
contents allowed to cool. Such a bag will weigh about a 
hundred pounds. It is highly nutritious and will keep 
indefinitely if it is not allowed to become damp. It is 
the main traveling provision throughout the great Fur 
Land, and it is always in demand at the Hudson's Bay 
posts. 

The night following the hunt is spent in feasting. In- 
credible are the quantities of tongues, savory ribs, and 
melting hump consumed. If wood is abundant, the fires 
glare against the darkness, and the plains resound with 
sounds of merriment. 

Sometimes enough buffaloes are killed in a single hunt 
to answer all purposes. At all events a day comes when 
the hunting party turns homeward, the wooden carts 
creaking beneath the weight of meat and robes. 

For more than half a century these great hunts of 
the Red River half-breeds continued. Many of the buf- 
falo robes and much of the pemmican used by the great 
fur company were thus obtained. Each year thousands 
of buffaloes were slain, yet little impression was made 
upon the teeming millions. It was not until railways to 
the Pacific were built across the plains that the ravages 
of skin hunters finally brought the buffaloes to virtual 
extinction. 

When that time came, the great hunts ceased, of 
course. Some of the descendants of the half-breeds who 



154 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

engaged in them still live upon the banks of the Red 
River and the Assiniboine. Others are rivermen, trap- 
pers, lumbermen, and one meets them throughout the 
whole of the great Northwest. Wherever they may be 
they still retain their love for streams and lakes and the 
forest primeval. 



CHAPTER XI 

FURTHER SIDELIGHTS ON INDIAN LIFE 

The various Indian tribes were almost constantly en- 
gaged in war with each other. Even in times of so-called 
" peace " hostilities might flare up at any moment. In 
times of war watch had to be constantly kept against 
enemies, and scouts were always on the lookout for 
prowling hostile bands. The main objects in warfare 
were to steal horses, take scalps, or get a wife. Horses 
were valuable, and besides it was much more exciting and 
honorable to steal a horse than to rear or buy it. As 
for scalps, among some tribes a young fellow was hardly 
esteemed a warrior until he had torn a gory trophy from 
the head of an enemy. To obtain such a trophy the 
average Indian would murder a woman or a child as re- 
morselessly as he would a man. If a young and pretty 
squaw fell into his hands, however, he would be likely, 
if it were possible, to carry her home with him as a con- 
cubine or wife. 

After all, however, in their fondness for war the In- 
dians did not differ greatly from more " civilized " peo- 
ples. A missionary once remonstrated with an assem- 
blage of Crees because of their unceasing warfare against 
their red neighbors. 

" My friend, what you say is good," replied a Cree 
chieftain; "but look, you are a white man and Chris- 
tian, we are red men and worship the Manitou; but what 
is the news we hear from the traders and the blackrobes? 

ISS 



156 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Is it not always the news of war? The Kitchi-Mokans 
(i.e. the Americans) are on the war-path against their 
brethren of the South, the English are fighting some tribes 
far away over the big lake; the French, and all the other 
tribes, are fighting too! My brother, it is news of war, 
always news of war! and we — we go on the war-path in 
small numbers. We stop when we kill a few of our 
enemies and take a few scalps; but your nations go to 
war in countless thousands, and we hear of more of your 
braves killed in one battle than all our tribe numbers 
together. So, my brother, do not say to us that it is 
wrong to go on the war-path, for what is the right of the 
white n^an cannot be wrong in his red brother. I have 
done! " 

The Rocky Mountain House, which stood in a thick 
pine forest on the bank of the northern branch of the 
Saskatchewan in the eastern foothills of the Rockies, was 
a post where trading was likely to be dangerous. The 
tribes that resorted thither were the Blackfeet, Crees, 
Sarcees, and Mountain Assiniboines, and they were not 
only often fighting each other but not infrequently they 
would attack the white traders. Every possible device 
of palisades, bars, locks, sliding-doors, and loopholes for 
firing down upon the Indians was employed. The follow- 
ing picture of trading at this post is taken from Robin- 
son's The Great Fur Land: 

" When the Blackfeet have accumulated a sufficient 
number of peltries to warrant a visit to the Rocky-Moun- 
tain House, two or three envoys, or forerunners, are 
chosen, and are sent in advance of the main body, by a 
week or more, to announce their approach and notify 
the officers in charge of the quantity of provisions, pel- 
tries, robes, horses, etc., which they will have to dispose 



FURTHER SIDELIGHTS ON INDIAN LIFE 157 

of; and also to ascertain the whereabouts of their heredi- 
tary enemies, the Crees and Mountain Assiniboines. The 
envoys prepare for state visits of this nature by an as- 
sumption of their gaudiest apparel, and a more than 
usual intensity of paint; scarlet leggings and blankets; 
abundance of ribbons in the cap, if any be worn, or 
the head-band trimmed with beads and porcupine quills, 
while the bulk of the cap is made of the plumage of 
birds; again, a single feather from the wing of an eagle 
or white-bird, fastened in the scalp-lock, or the hair 
plaited in a long cue behind, and two shorter ones hang- 
ing down on each side in front, each bound with coils 
of bright brass wire; round the eyes a halo of bright ver- 
milion, a streak down the nose, a patch on each cheek, 
and a circle round the mouth of the same color, consti- 
tute the effective head-gear of the advance-agents. The 
remainder of the costume is modified by climate and 
seasons. In the summer they are almost naked, seldom 
wearing more than the azain, or loin-cloth. In the colder 
months they wear clothing made of the skins of wild 
animals, dressed, or with the fur on. . . . 

" Upon arriving at the post, the envoys are received 
and handsomely entertained by the officer in charge, who 
makes them presents according to their rank, and in pro- 
portion to the anticipated value of the trade. They are 
feasted, smoked, and, upon occasion, wined to a consid- 
erable extent. . . . 

" Within the fort a searching examination is made of 
the efficient workings of all bolts, locks, gratings, etc., 
and of the closing of all means of communication between 
the Indian room — a large apartment in which the Black- 
feet assemble previous to being admitted into the trading- 
store — and the rest of the buildings; guns are newly 



158 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

cleaned, reloaded, and placed, together with abundant 
ammunition, by the numerous loop-holes in the lofts 
above the trading and Indian room. From the shelves 
of the former are taken most of the blankets, colored 
cloths, guns, ammunition, ribbons, bright handkerchiefs, 
beads, etc., the staple commodities of the Indian trade, 
with a view of decreasing the excitement under which the 
red-man always labors when brought into immediate 
jutaxposition with so much bravery — an excitement 
which renders him oblivious to furnishing an equivalent 
in exchange, and tends to foster his habits of forcible 
seizure. Preparations are also made within the stockade 
for the reception of the ponies to be purchased, and their 
safe-keeping afterward, for the Blackfoot's fine sense of 
humor frequently leads him to ride away an animal he 
has just sold, by way of practical joke upon the owner." 
The Indian room and the trading room were connected 
by a narrow passage, each end of which was closed by 
a heavy door. Only two Indians were admitted into the 
trading room at a time, and this was done with great 
care. The passage door into the Indian room was opened 
and two braves were permitted to pass through, after 
which this door was closed and locked; the other door 
was then opened, and the Indians were permitted to pass 
into the trading room. Thus one door was always kept 
shut, so that there could be no sudden rush into the 
trading room. Even that room itself was divided into 
two parts: in one were the traders and their goods, in the 
other the Indians, and there was only a square aperture 
between, and way through this was barred by a grating 
which left openings sufficiently large for the passage of a 
blanket or a robe. This last precaution was partly to 
prevent the Indians from handling and soiling the goods, 



FURTHER SIDELIGHTS ON INDIAN LIFE 159 

partly to prevent them, in case of disagreemeni, from 
attempting to kill the traders. If, in spite of all these 
precautions, the Indians either in the trading room or 
Indian room grew so violent as to be really dangerous, 
the traders could fire down upon them from loopholes 
in the ceiling. Robinson continues: 

" A somewhat amusing illustration of the universal 
passion for dress, which forms a distinguishing charac- 
teristic of the Blackfeet, equally with other Indians, 
occurs in these trades. The fashionable costume of the 
red-man is not generally regulated by the variable moods 
of the mercurial Parisian; indeed it has undergone but 
little change since the memory of men. Certain interest- 
ing specimens of the race are said to have been seen 
attired in even less than the vaunted INIexican costume — 
a shirt-collar and a pair of spurs. We ourselves remem- 
ber to have seen one chastely appareled in a stove-pipe 
hat. But it frequently occurs, during the trades, that 
some doughty chieftain elects to appear in more than 
regal magnificence before his tribe; and for his benefit, 
and those of similar tastes, the Company annually im- 
port certain ancient costumes prevalent in England some 
half-century since. The tall, stove-pipe hat, with round 
narrow brim; the snuff-brown or bright-blue coat, with 
high collar, climbing up over the neck, the sleeves tightly 
fitting, the waist narrow — this is the Blackfeet's ideal of 
perfection in dress, and the brave who can array himself 
in this antique garb struts out from the fori the envy 
and admiration of all beholders. Often the high hat is 
ornamented with a decayed ostrich-plume, drooping like 
the shadow of a great sorrow, which has figured in the 
turban of some dowager of the British Isles long years 
since. While the presence of trousers is considered by 



i6o TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTm\TST 

no means essential to the perfect finish of the costume, 
the addition of a narrow band of gold lace about the coat 
is regarded as imparting an air of tone to the general 
effect not to be obtained in any other way. For such a 
costume the Blackfeet brave will barter his deer-skin, 
beaded, quilled, and ornamented with the raven locks of 
his enemies: his head-band of beautiful feathers and 
shells; and the soft-tanned and flowing robe of buffalo- 
skin — a dress which adds a kingly dignity to his athletic 
form for one which Pantaloon would scorn to wear. 
Fortunately, the new dress does not long survive. Little 
by little it is found unsuited to the wild life which its 
owner leads, and, although never losing tlie originally 
high estimate placed upon it. is discarded at length by 
reason of the many inconveniences arising from running 
buffalo in a plug-hat and fighting in a swallow-tail coat 
against the Crees. . . . 

" A liquor trade generally began with a present of fire- 
water all round. Then business went on apace. After 
an Indian had taken his first drink, it was a matter of 
little difficulty to obtain all he had in exchange for spirits. 
Horses, robes, tents, provisions — all would be proffered 
for one more dram of the beloved poison. As the trade 
advanced it degenerated into a complete org>'. Nothing 
could exceed the excitement inside the room, except it 
was the excitement outside — for only a limited number 
of the thirsty crowd could obtain entrance at a time. 
There the anxious braves could only learn by hearsay 
what was going on within. Now and then a brave, with 
an amount of self-abnegation worthy of a better cause, 
would issue from the fort, \^•ith his cheeks distended and 
his mouth full of mm, and goins: alons: the ranks of his 
friends he would squirt a little of the liquor into the open 



FURTHER SIDELIGHTS ON INDIAN LIFE i6i 

mouths of Ms less fortunate brethren. There were times, 
however, when matters did not go on so peaceably. 
Knives were wont to flash and shots to be fired, and the 
walls of the Indian rooms at many of the forts show 
frequent traces of bullet-marks and knife hacking, done 
in the wild fury of the intoxicated savage." 

Belief in the supernatural was prevalent among all the 
Indians, and fear of in\isible powers played an extremely 
important part in their Uves. In practically ever>' band 
there was at least one medicine man. This person was" 
usually a sort of compound of physician, priest, and con- 
jurer. With some knowledge of the medical properties 
of roots and herbs he might combine skill as a juggler 
and a pretense at being able to commune with good and 
evil spirits. Some m.edicine men were well meaning, oc- 
casionally even useful; others were crafty, cruel, design- 
ing rascals, who used their real and pretended power to 
terrify others into doing what the medicine man willed. 
Most pretended to be able to cast spells over others. 
Some were diabolical poisoners who kept all about them 
in a state of terror. 

Every medicine man performed mysterious incanta- 
tions, and each had his " medicine bag." These bags 
were often made out of the skin of some unborn animal. 
Their contents were extremely varied: dried roots and 
herbs, colored powders, talons and claws of birds, feathers, 
snake and frog skins, human finger and toe nails, hu- 
man hair, car\'ed images of beasts and birds. The 
articles would probably be tied up separately in skins 
or birchbark and labeled with totemic symbols. 

Though accustomed to impose upon the ignorance of 
others, the medicine men were themselves often credulous. 
Joke-loving white men now and then had fun at their 



i62 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

expense. Occasionally this fun took an unexpected direc- 
tion. The author of The Great Fur Land relates that 
on a winter's day a number of Indians came to his house 
to beg for food. " Among them were several noted con- 
jurers. Some freak of curiosity tempted us to try how 
far their belief in the supernatural would carry them; 
and, having a large music box in our possession, it was 
wound up and placed unnoticed upon the table. In a 
moment it began playing, and the notes of ' Bonnie 
Doon,' ' The Lass o' Cowrie,' etc., resounded through the 
apartment. At its first chords the faces of the savages 
assumed a wondering, dazed expression. But, quickly 
recovering from that phase of amazement, they began 
to trace the sound to its origin. After some minutes of 
deep attention, one old man evidently discovered the 
source, and without a moment's hesitation raised his gun 
and fired it at the box. It is perhaps unnecessary to 
mention that the instrument was, to use a nautical expres- 
sion, ' a total wreck.' The conjurer asserted that the 
music was produced by an evil spirit concealed in the 
box, and could only be driven out by a gunshot. Our 
curiosity was satisfied, but at a considerable expense." 
The Assiniboines, Blackfeet, and other northwestern 
tribes frequently built pounds into which they would 
drive the buffaloes. These pounds varied in size accord- 
ing to circumstances and the number of Indians who 
engaged in the enterprise. The inclosure was made of 
logs laid one upon the other and interwoven with 
branches and twigs. The entrance was usually about ten 
paces wide and always fronted upon the open prairie. 
From each side of the entrance diverging lines of stakes 
or brush were erected; these lines were made impenetra- 
ble at first but at some distance from the pound they 



FURTHER SIDELIGHTS ON INDIAN LIFE 163 

consisted merely of occasional stakes or bundles of brush. 
When the pound was ready and conditions were 
propitious, young braves were sent out to drive in the 
buffaloes. This was a task that required much patience, 
for the animals must be started and driven slowly. 
Sometimes the work was partly done by starting small 
fires of grass or buffalo chips. Success was most likely 
when the wind blew toward the pound. Ha\ing brought 
the buffaloes within the lines of stakes and brush, the 
Indians usually hurried the herd on more rapidly. whOe 
a swift runner wearing a buffalo robe over his head would 
appear ahead of them, and imitating a buffalo as well 
as he could, make toward the entrance. If all went well, 
the simple-minded quarn,' would follow this guide. Some- 
times a trained pony would play this part. An Indian 
sentinel was always on the lookout, and when a herd 
appeared in sight, he would notif}' the xiUage, and every 
warrior, squaw, and child able to run would hurry to a 
position such that by wa\'ing their robes they could pre- 
vent the buffaloes from taking the wrong direction. On 
reachincr the entrance the buff'aloes would tumble in pell- 
mell behind the guide, and some would usually break 
their legs or necks jumping in. as the entrance was 
usually so constructed that there was a descent of at 
least six or eight feet. When the animals were inside, 
the entrance, if necessary, was blocked up with logs or 
brush, and the warriors then took up favorable positions 
on the inclosure and let fly their arrows until the last 
buffalo was slain. The squaws then entered the pound 
and did the work of butchering. L'sually only the fattest 
cows and calves were used; the thin cows and the tough 
old bulls were left for the dogs, which hung round the 
pound in droves. 



i64 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

In February, 1776, Alexander Henry the Elder ac- 
companied some Assiniboines in what is now Manitoba 
and saw them kill many buffaloes, which he calls oxen, 
in such a pound. 

" In the morning," says he, " we went to the hunt 
accordingly. The chief was followed by about forty 
men and a great number of women. We proceeded to 
a small island [of timber] on the plain, at the distance 
of five miles from the village. On our way we saw 
large herds of oxen at feed, but the hunters forbore to 
molest them lest they take the alarm. 

" Arrived at the island, the women pitched a few tents, 
while the chief led his hunters to its southern end, where 
there was a pound or inclosure. The fence was about 
four feet high, and formed of strong stakes of birch- 
wood, wattled with smaller branches of the same. The 
day was spent in making repairs, and by the evening 
all was ready for the hunt. 

" At daylight several of the more expert hunters were 
sent to decoy the animals into the pound. They were 
dressed in ox skins, with the hair and horns. Their faces 
were covered, and their gestures so closely resembled 
those of the animals themselves that, had I not been in 
the secret, I should have been as much deceived as the 
oxen. 

" At ten o'clock one of the hunters returned, bringing 
information of the herd. Immediately all the dogs were 
muzzled; and, this done, the whole crowd of men and 
women surrounded the outside of the pound. The herd, 
of which the extent was so great that I cannot pretend 
to estimate the numbers, was distant half a mile, ad- 
vancing slowly, and frequently stopping to feed. The 
part played by the decoyers was that of approaching 



FURTHER SIDELIGHTS ON INDIAN LIFE 165 

them within hearing and then bellowing like themselves. 
On hearing the noise, the oxen did not fail to give it atten- 
tion, and, whether from curiosity or sympathy, advanced 
to meet those from whom it proceeded. These, in the 
meantime, fell back deliberately toward the pound, al- 
ways repeating the call whenever the oxen stopped. This 
was reiterated till the leaders of the herd had followed 
the decoyers into the jaws of the pound, which, though 
wide asunder toward the plain, terminated, like a funnel, 
in a small aperture or gateway, and within this was the 
pound itself. The Indians remark that in all herds of 
animals there are chiefs, or leaders, by whom the motions 
of the rest are determined. 

" The decoyers now retired within the pound, and were 
followed by the oxen. But the former retired still fur- 
ther, withdrawing themselves at certain movable parts 
of the fence, while the latter were fallen upon by the 
hunters and presently wounded or killed by showers of 
arrows. Amid the uproar which ensued the oxen made 
several attempts to force the fence, but the Indians 
stopped them and drove them back by shaking skins be- 
fore their eyes. Skins were also made use of to stop the 
entrance, being let down by strings as soon as the oxen 
were inside. The slaughter was prolonged till the eve- 
ning, when the hunters returned to their tents. Next 
morning all the tongues were presented to the chief, to 
the number of seventy-two. 

" The women brought the meat to the village on 
sledges drawn by dogs. The lumps on the shoulders, 
and the hearts, as well as the tongues, were set apart 
for feasts, while the rest was consumed as ordinary food, 
or dried, for sale at the fort." 

Occasionally, instead of building a pound, the Indians, 



i66 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

riding on horseback, would drive a buffalo herd over a 
high cliff. On reaching the edge of the cliff the leaders 
of the doomed animals would often try to stop, but would 
be pushed over by those behind^ and all, or nearly all, 
would go plunging over the brink to destruction. Hun- 
dreds of animals would sometimes be piled up in one 
great heap of dead, while many others, though not in- 
stantly killed, would suffer broken legs or other serious 
injuries. Often so many animals were killed that most 
would be left to the coyotes, wolves, vultures, and bears, 
and the air for miles around would be poisoned with the 
noxious effluvia from the rotting carcasses. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE TRAGIC VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 

A FEW years after the close of the Napoleonic wars the 
British government determined to send out an expedition 
to explore the coast of the Arctic Ocean eastward from 
the mouth of the Coppermine River, the point reached 
nearly forty years before by Hearne. 

The man selected for the task was John Franklin, a 
captain in the Royal Navy. Franklin was at that time 
thirty-three years old, and was a man of culture and 
ability along scientific lines, but he had never before had 
any experience in wilderness travel. To accompany him 
the Admiralty selected a surgeon named John Richardson, 
and two midshipmen, George Back and Robert Hood. 
A more humble member of the expedition was an ener- 
getic and faithful seaman named John Hepburn. 

Both Hood and Back were artists of some ability and 
were to make drawings of the country and the natives. 
Dr. Richardson, In addition to looking after the health 
of the members of the expedition, was to act as naturalist. 
Besides mapping the Arctic coast, Franklin and his asso- 
ciates were to examine the copper deposits seen by 
Hearne and were to study such natural phenomena as 
the Aurora Borealis and the variation of the magnetic 
compass. At that time the Magnetic Pole had not yet 
been located. We know now that it is situated on the 
peninsula of Boothia Felix northwest of Hudson Bay. 

In May, 1819, the party left England on board a ship 

167 



1 68 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. They nar- 
rowly escaped being cast away on the barren coast of 
Labrador, and it was not until the 30th of August that 
their ship, still leaking badly, cast anchor off York Fac- 
tory. Six weeks of hard travel by way of the Nelson 
River, Lake Winnipeg, and the Saskatchewan brought 
them to Cumberland House, one of the main fur posts 
in the northwest. Thence they made the long and ardu- 
ous trip to Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca by dog 
sledge. 

Both the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest 
Company had instructed their agents to render Frank- 
lin's party every assistance in their power, but ruinous 
competition between these two companies had reduced 
their stocks of goods at the remote posts, while an epi- 
demic of measles and whooping cough had swept over 
the northwest carrying off many of the Indians and 
weakening the rest so that they had not brought to the 
posts as much meat as formerly. When the expedition 
left Chipewyan in July, 1820, it was poorly provided in 
goods, and its stock of provisions did not amount to more 
than one day's rations, exclusive of two barrels of flour, 
three cases of preserved meats, some chocolate, arrow- 
root, and portable soup, which were intended for use 
along the Arctic coast. 

The party consisted of Franklin, Dr. Richardson, 
Hood, Back, Hepburn, sixteen Canadian voyageurs, and 
a Chipewyan squaw. Subsequently at Great Slave Lake 
they were joined by a fur trader named Wenzel and by 
two French-Canadian interpreters named St. Germain 
and Adam. It had been difficult to obtain volunteers for 
the expedition, and some of the men who finally con- 
sented to go were of poor quality. Furthermore, the 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 169 

expedition was much too large, considering that it must 
live almost entirely off the country. 

At first, however, things went reasonably well. Many 
fish were caught, some game was killed, and considerable 
other food was obtained at posts along the way. Leav- 
ing Great Slave Lake, they ascended a stream known as 
the Yellow Knife River and made a series of portages 
to a lake which formed one of the headwaters of the 
Coppermine River. Here they established a post called 
Fort Enterprise and spent the winter. Aided by a band 
of Indians under a chief named Akaitcho, they were able 
to obtain sufficient fish and game to live reasonably well. 
Back and Wenzel, with two Canadians and two Indian 
hunters and their wives, made a thousand-mile winter 
journey back to Chipewyan and returned with mail from 
the outside world and rather meager supplies of ammuni- 
tion and other supplies. The fact that the expedition was 
poorly provided with goods made a bad impression on 
the Indians and doubtless had something to do with 
bringing on subsequent misfortunes that befell the expe- 
dition. 

In June the explorers, aided by the Indians, proceeded 
to the Coppermine River and began the descent of that 
stream. They were accompanied by two Eskimos, named 
Augustus and Junius, who had made the long journey 
from Hudson Bay by way of Lake Winnipeg, the Sas- 
katchewan, and the Mackenzie in order to act as inter- 
preters in case the explorers should meet some of their 
people on the Arctic coast. The expedition was still 
badly equipped in many respects and was almost wholly 
dependent for food upon what could be killed or caught. 

Franklin was extremely anxious to establish • friendly 
relations with the Eskimos, and when the expedition 



170 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

neared Bloody Falls he sent Augustus and Junius ahead 
to carry presents to their countrymen and to tell them 
that the white men desired to make peace between them 
and their enemies the Indians. The ambassadors found 
a band of Eskimos at the falls and entered into talk with 
them, but the inopportune arrival of the rest of the party 
alarmed the wild Eskimos and they fled down the river, 
leaving most of their goods behind them. 

At the falls Franklin noticed several human skulls that 
bore marks of violence and also many other bones, and 
he decided that these were relics of the massacre wit- 
nessed by Hearne nearly forty years before. 

Subsequently more Eskimos were seen, and friendly 
relations were established with an aged couple whose 
infirmities prevented them from escaping. However, the 
rest of the Eskimos were in such terror of the Indians 
who were with Franklin's party that they fled into the 
wilderness. Furthermore, the Indians themselves be- 
came alarmed and set off up the Coppermine in a panic, 
but not before they had promised to provide a deposit 
of meat at Fort Enterprise. Wenzel and four of the 
voyageurs were also sent back from this place. St. Ger- 
main and Adam, the two interpreters, and most of the 
other voyageurs were also anxious to return, prophesying 
disasters ahead, but this Franklin would not permit. 

The party was now reduced to twenty persons in two 
large birchbark canoes. The number was still too large 
to be certain of obtaining a livelihood off the country. 
Twenty men require a great deal of food to sustain them, 
and unfortunately only two of the party, namely the 
interpreters, St. Germain and Adam, were dependable as 
hunters. The Englishmen, though brave, had no skill in 
that line, nor, if the truth must be told, much resource- 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 171 

fulness in the battle with the wilderness. In the lan- 
guage of a later day they were " tenderfeet." Even most 
of the French Canadians, though good boatmen, were 
not well fitted for the trials ahead. 

During the latter part of July and the first half of 
August the explorers cruised eastward along the irregular 
Arctic coast; being often delayed by movements of the 
ice. Franklin hoped all the while to find Eskimos from 
whom he could obtain provisions, but, though many 
traces of these people were noticed along the coast, no 
more of the Eskimos themselves were seen. Some fish 
were caught and caribou, waterfowl, and other game were 
killed, but the explorers were frequently forced to make 
use of the scanty stock of dried meat and other provi- 
sions they carried with them. 

Finally, south of Point Turnagain, on the eastern 
shore of the bay named Coronation Gulf by Franklin, the 
explorers turned back. They did not attempt to return 
by way of the Coppermine, but instead ascended a 
stream called by Franklin Hood's River, intending to 
follow it to its source and then strike southeastward 
across country to Fort Enterprise. So many rapids and 
falls were soon met with that two small canoes, each 
capable of carrying three persons, were made out of the 
larger craft, and some of the baggage was abandoned. 
The explorers followed Hood's River a few days more 
and then, leaving it, struck off southwestward for the 
fort, distant in a straight line less than one hundred and 
fifty miles. They took with them the small canoes for 
use in crossing any rivers or lakes they might come 
upon. 

It was still early in September, but already, in that far 
northern country, winter was at hand. The land was 



172 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

treeless, and the moss upon which they were dependent 
for fuel was often too wet to burn. At first they were 
lucky enough to kill a few caribou and musk-oxen, but 
they were delayed by storms and the men were improvi- 
dent in the use of food. One of the canoes was so badly 
damaged, probably purposely by the men who carried it, 
that it was used on September 8th to cook the last of 
the arrow-root and portable soup^ the first meal the ex- 
plorers had had for three days. In the next two days 
a few ptarmigan were killed, and the party also began 
to gather and cook a sort of lichen called by the Cana- 
dians tripe de roche. This last dish helped to satisfy 
the cravings of hunger, but there was little nutriment 
in it, and it did some of the men more harm than good, 
as it upset their stomachs. Another thing to which the 
party had recourse was the shrub known as Labrador 
tea, from the twigs of which they made a beverage that 
helped to revive their courage. 

On September loth they came upon a herd of musk- 
oxen grazing in a valley, but the hunt was badly managed, 
and only one, a cow, was killed. She afforded them the 
first real meal they had had for six days. Even the in- 
testines and the contents of the stomach were devoured. 
Next day they were forced to remain in camp by a 
snowstorm. They restricted themselves to a single meal, 
yet even then had only meat for one more day. In the 
morning, though the gale was still strong, they set out 
through snow two feet deep. By night they were much 
worn out, nor did the musk-ox meat seem to have helped 
them much. Next day they had nothing to eat save 
tripe de roche and a single ptarmigan and had the mis- 
fortune to come upon a large lake, which stretched away 
for many miles right across their path. Franklin now 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 173 

made the discovery that the French Canadians had 
thrown away three of the fishing nets and burnt the 
floats; the loss was a grave one, for with the nets it 
might have been possible to catch many fish. The men 
were, in fact, for the most part thoughtless, wasteful, 
and rebellious. Next morning, however, one of them, 
Perrault, kindly gave to the half-starved officers a piece 
of meat which he had saved from his own allowance. 

Later in the day one of the hunters killed two caribou, 
but in Grossing a river the canoe was upset, and one of 
the men was nearly drowned. Next day another caribou 
was killed, but there were so many mouths to fill that 
the meat was soon consumed. Several starving days fol- 
lowed during which the party made its way slowly 
through rough country, greatly impeded by the snow and 
being often forced to pass the nights in wet clothes shiv- 
ering in a fireless camp. The men were now straggling 
badly, and on September 2 2d the second canoe was left 
behind by the men who had it in charge. Starvation was 
so great that when the men found the bones and a little 
of the skin of a caribou that had been killed by wolves 
the preceding spring tliey ate them, having first rendered 
the bones friable by burning. Scraps of leather and 
worn-out moccasins were also consumed. 

On September 25 th five small caribou were killed. 
With proper management the meat thus obtained would 
have lasted some time, but it was all divided equally, and 
some of the men consumed a third of their share the 
first day. Some ate so much, in fact, that they were made 
ill and were weakened in consequence. After resting a 
day the party moved onward and came to the Copper- 
mine River at a place where the current was very swift. 
Despairing of crossing, they followed the river imtil they 



174 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

came to a large lake. They attempted to get round this 
but came to an arm stretching to the northeastward and, 
after wasting much time and effort, turned back to the 
river. The rotten carcass of a deer was found and 
eagerly devoured. Some of the meat belonging to the 
officers was stolen by the men and eaten by them. Oc- 
casionally, too^ the men would shoot ptarmigan and would 
eat them surreptitiously instead of adding them to the 
common stock. 

On the shore of this lake Junius, one of the Eskimos, 
became separated from the rest of the party, owing to 
their turning back, and he was not seen again. As he 
had a gun, ammunition, a small kettle, and other neces- 
saries, Franklin hoped that he would follow the course 
of the Coppermine until he reached some of his own 
people. Probably, however, he died in the wilderness. 

When they got back to the river, the party made a 
raft of bundles of small willows. But the willows were 
green, and the raft had such little buoyancy that it would 
support only one man. The current was exceedingly 
swift, the wind blew strongly from across the river, and 
repeated attempts to cross failed. Finally Dr. Richard- 
son tried to swim the stream with a line and haul the 
raft across. Just before starting he stepped on a knife, 
which cut his foot to the bone. He nearly reached the 
opposite bank but then became so benumbed by the icy 
water that he sank out of sight. He was dragged back 
to shore and was pulled out upon the bank in an almost 
lifeless condition. His wet clothes were taken off, and 
he was laid before a fire. But the mistake was made of 
putting him too close, and one of his sides was so badly 
burned that he did not recover from the effects until the 
following summer. 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 175 

The sight of his naked body had a painful effect upon 
all who saw it. "Ah, que nous sommes maigres! — Oh, 
how lean we are ! " cried the Canadians when they beheld 
his emaciated frame. 

Two more days were lost at this place^ but finally the 
party managed to cross the river in a canoe made out of 
willows and some painted canvas in which the bedding 
had been wrapped. The food supply was by this time 
again exhausted. Hunger, cold, and despair brought 
almost all to a state of pitiable weakness. On October 
4th Franklin sent Back, St. Germain, and two French 
Canadians ahead with instructions to hurry to Fort En- 
terprise and return with food. 

Next day the main party followed painfully after, 
toiling through the deep snow, pausing often from ex- 
haustion, and now and then falling down. The men 
straggled a great deal, and only six miles were made the 
whole day. Next day the route lay over a range of 
rough, black hills. The wind blew strong, the air was 
piercing cold. Two of the men became exhausted and 
had to be abandoned. The survivors spent a miserable 
night in a patch of small willows, unable to build a fire 
large enough to warm themselves or even to thaw out 
their moccasins. At noon next day they reached a rather 
extensive thicket of willows near which there was a supply 
of tripe de roche growing on the face of the rocks. Hood, 
who was very weak, remained here, with Dr. Richardson 
and faithful John Hepburn. Most of what baggage re- 
mained was also left at this place, and the tent was 
pitched for those remaining behind. 

Later in the day the main party reached some spruce 
woods, but camped beyond them. Next morning two 
of the men, Belanger and Michel, pleading weakness, 



176 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

obtained permission to return to the tent. Michel was 
an Iroquois Indian. The rest had not gone far before 
another man_, Perrault, burst into tears and turned back 
to the camp, which was only a quarter of a mile distant. 
Later in the day still another man, an Italian named 
Fontano, also turned back. Augustus, the Eskimo, be- 
came impatient and went ahead by himself. 

Only four other men now remained with Franklin. 
For three days, without any other food than tripe de 
roche, Labrador tea, and a few scraps of leather, they 
struggled onward through the deep snow. At last, more 
dead than alive, they at last reached tlie fond haven of 
their hopes. Fort Enterprise, only to meet an awful 
disappointment. The place was entirely desolate. There 
was no deposit of provisions, and no trace either of 
Wenzel or the Indians. There was, however, a note from 
Back to the effect that he had gone in search of the In- 
dians and that, if he failed to find them, he would en- 
deavor to obtain assistance at distant Fort Providence 
on Great Bear Lake. 

The shock of disappointment was more than the poor 
fellows could bear. " The whole party," says Franklin, 
" shed tears, not so much for our own fate, as for that 
of our friends in the rear, whose lives depended entirely 
on our sending immediate relief from this place." 

The same day Augustus, the Eskimo, reached the fort, 
and a few days later Franklin sent him and Benoit in 
search of the Indians. Meanwhile, Franklin and his 
comrades lived off tripe de roche and scraps of skins 
and bones that had been thrown on the dump heap the 
winter before. Of course, such food contained little 
nourishment. The bones were so acrid that soup made 
from them made the mouths of those who ate it sore. 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 177 

One day while the four men, two of whom were now 
too weak to walk, were sitting before the fire talking 
about the possibility of relief coming, two men entered, 
each carrying a pack. They were Dr. Richardson and 
Hepburn, whom Franklin had not seen for twenty-two 
days. 

" Upon entering the now desolate building," says Dr. 
Richardson, "we had the satisfaction of embracing Cap- 
tain Franklin, but no words can convey an idea of the 
filth and wretchedness that met our eyes on looking 
around. Our own misery had stolen upon us by degrees, 
and we were accustomed to the contemplation of each 
other's emaciated figures, but the ghastly countenances, 
dilated eye-balls^ and sepulchral voices of Captain Frank- 
lin and those with him were more than we could at first 
bear." 

However, Dr. Richardson and Hepburn liad passed 
through experiences far more horrible than those which 
had fallen to the lot of Franklin. The day following the 
parting had been so stormy that the doctor, Hood, and 
Hepburn, weak and wretched, had remained in the tent 
all day. The next day Michel, the Iroquois, came to the 
camp with word that there was a clump of spruce trees 
ahead which would furnish fuel, and he said that his 
companion, Belanger, had started out earlier than he 
and must have been lost. Michel had killed a rabbit and 
a ptarmigan, which he shared with the others. During 
the next two days the men moved their camp to the 
pines, and Michel spent much time hunting. On the 
third day the Iroquois brought in some meat, which he 
said he had taken from a wolf that had been killed while 
attacking a caribou. 

The others accepted his story and ate of the meat, but 



178 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

later events convinced them that in reality it was part of 
the body of either Belanger or Perrault. The supposition 
is that the Iroquois had killed Belanger soon after 
Franklin's party left them and that when Perrault be- 
came exhausted and came back the Indian had then 
killed him to conceal his crime. 

For some days Michel continued to hunt or pretend to 
hunt, spending much of the time away from camp. At 
such times he doubtless was partaking of cannibalistic 
feasts. He grew more and more moody and surly. One 
day while the doctor was away gathering tripe de roche 
and Hepburn was cutting firewood they heard a shot and 
on returning to camp found Hood dead with a bullet 
hole through his head. Michel said that the dead man 
had committed suicide, but on examining the wound the 
doctor found that the bullet had entered from behind 
and that the gun had been applied so close that Hood's 
night-cap had been set on fire. 

The Iroquois kept close to the others to prevent them 
from talking over the tragedy, and they, in their weak 
state, felt at his mercy. Three days later they started 
for the fort, and in the afternoon the Indian left them 
and thus gave the doctor and Hepburn an opportunity 
to discuss their suspicions. The upshot of the matter was 
that when Michel returned Dr. Richardson " put an 
end to his life by shooting him through the head with a 
pistol." 

Before starting for the fort the doctor and Hepburn 
had eaten a few ptarmigan, which Michel had killed, but 
from that time on for many days, unless they ate of the 
dead man, they had no food except lichens, a little 
leather, and the spine of a caribou that had been dead 
many months. From the last they " extracted the spinal 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 179 

marrow, which, even in its frozen state, was so acrid as 
to excoriate the lips." 

When near the fort, Hepburn killed a ptarmigan, and 
this was the only food they brought to Franklin and his 
three comrades. The doctor tore out the feathers, held 
the bird before the fire a few minutes, and then divided 
it into six portions. 

" I and my three companions ravenously devoured our 
shares," writes Franklin, " as it was the first morsel of 
flesh any of us had tasted for thirty-one days, unless, 
indeed, the small gristly particles which we found occa- 
sionally adhering to the pounded bones may be termed 
flesh." 

Of all the party Hepburn was now the strongest, and 
upon him devolved most of the labor of cutting and 
bringing in wood. He also hunted a good deal, but, 
though caribou were occasionally seen near the fort, he 
failed to kill any. One night both Peltier and Semandre 
died. Adam, one of the interpreters, was near death, 
and a few more days would doubtless have brought an 
end to the lives of all, but on the 7th of November a 
party of Indians arrived with a supply of food. 

News of the plight of the explorers had been brought 
to the Indian camp by Augustus, the Eskimo, and also 
by St. Germain, of Back's party. Back and his comrades 
had themselves experienced terrible hardships from 
hunger and cold, and one of them, Beauparlant, had died 
of hunger and cold. 

The survivors of the expedition were taken to Fort 
Providence on Great Bear Lake, and with food and care 
gradually recovered their strength. In the spring they 
made their way out of the country by the way they had 
entered it and ultimately reached their homes in safety 



i8o TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

thus ending one of the most tragic exploring expeditions 
in American history. 

In 1825-26 Franklin, again accompanied by Richard- 
son, Back, and Hepburn, made another expedition to the 
Arctic coast. This time, with more experienced manage- 
ment, there were no tragedies, and the coast line for long 
distances on both sides of the mouth of the Mackenzie 
River was traced and mapped. 

Meanwhile, renewed efforts had been made by sea to 
solve the old riddle of the Northwest Passage. Beginning 
with 1 81 8 repeated expeditions were sent out by the 
British Admiralty. Under such captains as John Ross, 
William E. Parry, and Captain James C. Ross, progress 
was made in mapping the maze of islands and straits 
to the north of North America, but no ship managed to 
find and sail through the long sought for passage. The 
most notable discovery of these years was made by an 
expedition in which both the Rosses participated, 
namely the location of the North Magnetic Pole. Its 
position was found to be at Cape Adelaide on the west 
coast of the peninsula of Boothia Felix in latitude 
70° 03' N., longitude 96° 44' W. 

The fact that the Magnetic Pole and the North Pole 
are not located at the same place had long been known 
to scientists, navigators, surveyors, etc., for, except in a 
few places, the compass needle does not point directly 
northward but varies to the east or west. When ex- 
plorers got to the northward of the Magnetic Pole, the 
needle would, in fact, point south. At the Magnetic 
Pole the needle does not point either north or south but 
directly downward. The discovery of the exact location 
of the Magnetic Pole was of great importance to science 
and to navigation. 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN i8i 

The expedition which discovered the Magnetic Pole 
was gone five years, and their long absence caused great 
uneasiness in England. In 1832, after three years had 
passed without any tidings, the government and friends 
of the explorers sent out a search expedition under 
Franklin's old lieutenant, Back. Back's party made their 
way to Great Slave Lake and in 1834 succeeded in 
descending the Great Fish River to the Arctic coast. 
They were already aware, however, that the men they 
sought had reached England in safety, and they soon 
returned to Great Slave Lake. In 1836 Back made an 
Arctic expedition in command of the Terror, but the ship 
was beset by the ice near Cape Bylot, and for ten months 
the explorers were subjected to the vicissitudes of the 
moving ice pack. When release finally came, the Terror 
was in such bad condition that she barely escaped 
foundering on the voyage back to England. 

In 1836 the Hudson's Bay Company decided to send 
out an expedition " to complete the discovery and survey 
of the northern shores of the American continent." To 
lead the expedition the Company selected two of its own 
men, P. W. Dease and Thomas Simpson, both men of 
great force and determination and long experienced in 
Northland travel. They managed the work with great 
skill and avoided the mistakes that had proved fatal to 
so many of their inexperienced predecessors. In 1837 
Simpson passed Franklin's " farthest west " and reached 
Point Barrow; as this point had already been attained 
by ships sailing from Bering Strait, Simpson thus filled 
in the gap that existed in the northwestern coast-line of 
the continent. On this occasion Dease consented to 
command the supporting party while the younger and 
more ambitious Simpson pushed ahead; the same tactics 



i82 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

were subsequently followed. In the next two years 
Simpson pushed eastward far beyond Franklin's " far- 
thest east," reached Castor and Pollux Bay, well be- 
yond the mouth of the Great Fish River, and explored 
part of Victoria Land. 

These expeditions had cost comparatively little; their 
remarkable success was due mainly to the fact that 
Simpson and Dease were experienced men who knew 
how. Of all Arctic travelers of the period they were 
the most skilled, with the exception of Dr. John Rae, 
who was their peer ; some account of his remarkable work 
will be given later. As one follows the long tale of 
Arctic disasters he realizes more and more that most of 
them were due to ignorance on the part of those who 
conducted them. It seems a pity that all leaders were 
not experienced men such as Simpson and Rae. As for 
Simpson he would doubtless have been sent out on 
another expedition, but in 1840, while in the Manitoba 
country, he died by violence. According to one theory 
he committed suicide during a moment of mental aber- 
ration in which he killed two half-breeds who were 
traveling with him, but it is much more probable that 
he became involved in a dispute with the breeds and 
that he was slain by the survivors. 

After his second expedition to the Arctic Franklin 
served in various positions, among others as governor of 
Tasmania, but in 1845 the Admiralty decided to send out 
another expedition and, though he was then fifty-nine 
years of age, Franklin was placed in command of it. He 
was given two ships, the Erebus and Terror^ and the 
main task set for him was to find and sail through the 
Northwest Passage. 

The Erebus and Terror, with one hundred and twenty- 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 183 

nine souls on board and provisions for three years, sailed 
from England on May 26, 1845. They reached the 
Arctic seas and on July 12, 1845, were seen by the crew 
of a whaling vessel moored to an iceberg waiting for an 
opening in the middle ice so as to cross Lancaster 
Sound. Then those on board vanished from the sight 
of men, and for years no tidings came as to their fate. 

Uneasiness began to develop regarding the safety of 
the explorers as early as the winter of 1846-47, but it was 
not until 1848 that the Admiralty was fully roused. From 
that time forward for years expedition after expedition 
was sent out to search for the missing men, some by the 
British government, one by Lady Franklin, who spent 
practically the whole of her fortune for that purpose. 
Even America participated in the search, for the whole 
civilized world was keenly interested. The searching 
parties went by ship from the east and from the west, 
and overland from the south. Some of these expeditions 
made important geographical discoveries, and Captain 
Richard Collinson in the Enterprise, sailing from the 
west, reached in 1851 Gateshead Island, whence he could 
look across the strait where, it is now believed, one of 
Franklin's vessels sank, to King William's Land, where 
lay the skeletons of some of the men he sought. But of 
these things he was wholly unaware. Another vessel from 
the west, the Investigator, under Captain McClure, 
reached Barrow Strait, but there ran aground and was 
ultimately abandoned. The crew, however, traveled over 
the ice and joined an eastern searching party and thus 
made the Northwest Passage, though not all of it by 
ship. 

It was not until March, 1854, that Dr. John Rae ob- 
tained authentic information as to the fate of the expe- 



i84 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

dition. In 1845-47, under the auspices of the Hudson^s 
Bay Company, Rae had continued the work of Simpson 
and had practically completed the exploration of the 
northern coast of North America. During this time he 
displayed untiring energy and great skill in traveling and 
in obtaining a living off the country. In 1848 he took 
up the search for Franklin and continued it for several 
years. Finally, at the time given above, he met Eskimos 
who gave him information to the effect that every man 
of the expedition had perished. Their stories were rein- 
forced by the fact that they had in their possession many 
objects which had belonged to the expedition. Upon 
returning to civilization. Dr. Rae and his companions 
were given ten thousand pounds, the reward offered by 
the Admiralty to any one who would set at rest the 
fate of Franklin and his companions. 

For several decades thereafter other explorers, notably 
Captain McClintock, who was sent out by Lady Frank- 
lin, obtained additional information from the natives, 
found the skeletons of some of the dead and many arti- 
cles belonging to the expedition, also two short written 
papers. From all this data the story of what befell the 
expedition was finally pieced out. 

The Erebus and Terror spent the winter of 1845-46 at 
Beechey Island. When the ice broke up next summer 
they sailed away but were beset in Victoria Strait on 
September 12, 1846, and all efforts to free them were 
in vain. Finally on April 22, 1848, they were abandoned. 
Up to that time twenty-four officers and men had died, 
including Franklin himself, who passed away on June 11, 
1847. The food supply was scanty, and the survivors, 
one hundred and five in all, set out for Back's Fish River, 
two hundred and fifty miles to southward, hoping doubt- 



VOYAGES OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN 185 

less to subsist on the fish and game they might find there. 
But it was a hopeless quest. One by one their strength 
gave out and they perished of disease, cold, and hunger. 
A small party of Eskimos saw and camped with some 
of the white men, but fearing their own safety would be 
compromised by remaining, they stole away and left the 
white men to their fate. " They fell down and died as 
they walked," said an old Eskimo woman who eleven 
years later told the story to McClintock. The end of the 
last man of the unfortunate expedition has thus been pic- 
tured by one who in after years penetrated to that boreal 
solitude: 

" One sees this man, after the death of his last remain- 
ing companions, all alone in that terrible world, gazing 
round him in mute despair, the sole living thing in that 
dark, frozen universe. The sky is somber, the earth 
whitened with a glittering whiteness that chills the heart. 
His clothing is covered with frozen snow, his face lean 
and haggard, his beard a cluster of icicles. The setting 
sun looks back to see the last wretched victim die. He 
meets her sinister gaze with a steady eye, as though 
bidding her defiance. For a few minutes they glare at 
each other, then the curtain is drawn and all is dark." 



CHAPTER XIII 

LATER TRAVELERS AND EXPLORERS IN THE 
CANADIAN NORTHWEST 

Of the other explorers of the great Northwest perhaps 
the most notable were Simon Fraser and David Thomp- 
son. Fraser entered the service of the Northwest Com- 
pany at sixteen and at different times he was stationed 
in almost every section of the fur country from Lake 
Superior to the Pacific. In 1805 he ascended the Peace 
and Parsnip Rivers, turned up that tributary of the 
Parsnip that is now known as Pack River, and on a long 
narrow lake that he named Lake McLeod he established 
the first post west of the Rockies and north of the 
Spanish settlements in California. I saw this post in 
1 91 6 and again three years later. It is still far remote 
from railroads and civilization and consists merely of 
two log houses. A small band of Siccanni Indians have 
their huts close by, and two or three trappers and free 
traders have small establishments not far away. 

Fraser also established Fort St. James, Fort George, 
and other posts in New Caledonia, as British Columbia 
was then called; he discovered and explored Stuart's 
River, Stuart's Lake, and many other streams and lakes; 
but the achievement for which he is mainly remembered 
was the descent of the great river that now bears his 
name. Starting from Fort George on May 28, 1907, with 
four canoes, nineteen voyageurs, and two Indians, Fraser 
alternately floated downstream and portaged round 

186 



LATER EXPLORERS 187 

frightful canyons until almost to the sea, when shortage 
of food and the hostility of the Indians caused him to 
turn back. 

Fraser was a restless adventurer and fur trader, with- 
out much education or special mental endowments; David 
Thompson was also an adventurer and fur trader but his 
main interest was the pursuit of science, and he was a 
skilled astronomer, geographer, and explorer. He served 
both the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest 
Company, and for sixty-six years he kept voluminous 
journals covering his experiences and observations from 
1784 to 1850. These journals fill forty volumes of manu- 
script and are still preserved, but unfortunately they are 
mostly dull and dry scientific data and contain little of 
interest except to scientists. 

During his long career Thompson traveled over a 
great part of the Northwest, exploring, surveying, tak- 
ing astronomical observations to fix the latitude and 
longitude of places, and mapping the country. All this 
work was carried on in connection with his labors as a 
trader, though, to their credit be it said, the Northwest 
Company seem to have indulged and encouraged his 
efforts, even at times at some loss to themselves. 

Among his many achievements may be mentioned the 
discovery of Athabasca Pass through the Rockies and the 
exploration of the headwaters of the Columbia. In 181 1 
he descended the Columbia to its mouth and meant to 
take possession of the country but found Americans, em- 
ployed by John Jacob Astor, already established at 
Astoria. Despite the many hardships he endured during 
his long career, Thompson lived to the advanced age of 
eighty-seven. Though not so well known by the general 
public as some of his contemporary explorers, he has been 



i88 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

rightly called " the greatest geographer of his day in 
British America, and the maker of what was then by 
far its greatest map." 

The big features of northwestern geography were dis- 
covered by such men as Radisson, La Verendrye, Hearne, 
Mackenzie, Fraser, Thompson, Franklin, and Simpson. 
The minor details were filled in by a host of less dis- 
tinguished men. Meanwhile, great navigators like Van- 
couver, Cook, and Bering explored the Pacific coast. 
Russian fur traders occupied Alaska, but even when that 
country was purchased by the United States in 1867 much 
of the vast interior was unexplored. The great gold rush 
of the late '90's, however, led adventurous men to push 
into almost every nook and cranny both of Alaska and 
of British Yukon in search of the glittering " root of all 
evil," just as forty years before the discovery of gold in 
British Columbia led to the exploration of much of that 
great province. 

As late as 1890, however, there were still vast areas in 
the Dominion of Canada — between one-third and one- 
fourth of the whole — that had never been penetrated by 
white men. That this was so was due mainly to the 
great size of the country, natural obstacles, and the 
climate. 

Of the Barren Grounds, for example, hardly more was 
known than in the days of Franklin and Simpson. In the 
last thirty years, however, several notable expeditions 
have been made into that region. Of these expeditions 
one of the most remarkable was made by a young Eng- 
lishman named Warburton Pike, who penetrated far into 
the Barren Grounds in search of musk-ox, an animal con- 
cerning which little was then known. In June, 1889, he 
left the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Calgary and trav- 




o 



o 



o 
Q 



LATER EXPLORERS 189 

eled three hundred miles north past Edmonton, then only 
a fur post, to Athabasca Landing, and thence went by 
water to Fort Resolution at the western end of Great 
Slave Lake. There he obtained the assistance of an old 
half-breed named King Beaulieu and of his numerous 
family. The whole party, " men, women, and children, 
amounting in all to over twenty souls, or to be more 
practical, mouths," set out in three birchbark canoes 
for the east end of the lake. In addition, there were 
'fifteen half-starved dogs. 

The supply of food was scanty, and, though some fish 
and ducks were caught or shot along the way, the com- 
missariat was completely empty when Pike, some of the 
half-breed men, and two of the women left the northeast 
shore of the lake and struck off northward into the inte- 
rior. With them they took two canoes, intending to 
follow a chain of detached lakes which led toward a much 
larger lake known as Lake Mackay. They hoped 
speedily to fall in with the caribou, which were then 
migrating southward, but the herds had not yet got that 
far, and for several days they got nothing but a few 
whitefish and a wolverine, an animal that is eaten only 
in starving times, as they are scavengers and even grave- 
robbers. September 13 found them encamped in a clump 
of spruce on the shore of the Lac du Rocher. They had 
still found no signs of the caribou, and had been able to 
catch no fish at all in this lake. 

" There is," says Pike, " no better camp than a well- 
set-up lodge with a good fire crackling in the middle, and 
in this respect we were comfortable enough, but the 
shortness of food was telling rapidly. We had made no 
pretence at eating all day, and since leaving Fond du 
Lac [on Great Slave Lake] had subsisted almost entirely 



I90 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

on tea and tobacco, while even on the Great Slave Lake 
provisions had been none too plentiful. We passed the 
evening smoking, and, as I have found usual in these 
cases, talking of all the good things we had ever eaten, 
while eyes shone in the firelight with the brilliancy pe- 
culiar to the early stages of starvation. Outside the lodge 
the wind was moderated; the northern lights, though it 
was still early in the year, were flashing brightly across 
the sky, and far away in the distance we could hear the 
ominous howling of wolves. Late in the night I awoke, 
and, on lighting my pipe, was greeted with the remark: 
' Ah! Monsieur, une fois j'ai goute le pain avec le beurre; 
le bon Dieu a fait ces deux choses-la expres pour manger 
ensemble.' " (" Ah, Sir, once I tasted bread and butter; 
God made those things expressly to be eaten together.") 
The remark was made by old King Beaulieu and ex- 
pressed his idea of luxurious eating. 

In the morning they were lucky enough to catch enough 
trout to relieve their hunger, while two hunters, who had 
been sent ahead, returned late in the evening with a small 
load of caribou meat. Next day they portaged across a 
neck of land to Lake Camsell and in the afternoon saw 
and killed a big bull caribou. Says Pike: 

" There was no more thought of traveling that night, 
and, while two men were skinning and cutting up the 
caribou, the others unloaded and carried ashore the canoe, 
lit a fire, and got ready the kettles for a feast that was 
to make up for all the hard times just gone through. 
There was plenty of meat for everybody to gorge them- 
selves, and we* certainly made a night of it, boiling and 
roasting till we had very nearly finished the whole ani- 
mal. I could not quite keep up with the others at this 
trial of eating powers, but after a couple of weeks among 



LATER EXPLORERS igr 

the caribou I was fully able to hold my own. We seemed 
at length to have found a land of plenty, as ptarmigan 
were very numerous, just losing the last of their pretty 
brown plumage and putting on their white dresses to 
match the snow, which would soon drive them for food 
and shelter into the thick pine woods round the shores 
of the Great Slave Lake." 

For several days they pushed northward, killing large 
numbers of caribou and cacheing the meat under rocks 
or by breaking the ice near the shore of small lakes and 
throwing the carcasses into shoal water; this last made 
the safest cache of all, for the ice would at once freeze 
again and would defy all the efforts of the wolves or 
wolverines. 

On the 2 7th of September they finally found and Pike 
killed a big bull musk-ox. They were then on the head- 
waters of the Coppermine and not far from the site 
of Fort Enterprise and the scene of the awful disasters 
that befell Franklin's first expedition. The weather was 
growing colder, and they were not provided with proper 
clothing, snowshoes, or dog-sledges. Yet says Pike: 

"Nobody liked to be the first to talk about turning 
back, but on reaching the top of a low range of hills and 
seeing a flat desolate stretch of country lying to the north 
of us, with the lakes frozen up and no signs of animals 
or firewood, King turned to me and said: ' It is not far 
from here that the white men died from cold and starva- 
tion at this time of the year; let us go back before the 
snow gets deep and we are not able to travel.' The old 
man looked particularly tough at this moment; none of 
our faces were very clean, but his was the more remark- 
able, as the blood of the last caribou that we killed had 
splashed in it, and, running down his beard, had mixed 



192 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

with his frozen breath and appeared in the form of long 
red icicles hanging from his chin. I think he knew what 
was in my mind and had an idea that I was laughing at 
him, for suddenly his quick temper got the better of him 
and he broke into one of those wild volleys of blasphemy 
that I had heard him give way to so often, and, turning 
on his heel, said that I could do as I liked, but he was 
going to make the best of his way back to the lodge." 

The party returned, without special adventure to Lake 
Camsell, and there Pike, King BeauHeu, and some of the 
women and children remained for ^everal weeks, the men 
killing some game but, for the most part, taking things 
rather easily, feasting on fat caribou and lounging in the 
lodges. In the middle of October a fierce blizzard swept 
down from the north and covered the earth under two 
feet of snow, while every day the daylight grew shorter 
and the sun shone with less warmth. 

" With the increasing depth of snow," says Pike, 
" there was a noticeable migration of life from the Barren 
Ground. Ptarmigan came literally in thousands, while the 
tracks of wolves, wolverines, and Arctic foxes made a 
continuous network in the snow. Scattered bands of 
caribou were almost always in sight of the top of the 
ridge behind the camp, and increased in numbers till the 
morning of October 20th, when little Baptiste, who had 
gone for firewood, woke us up before daylight with the 
cry of La joule! La joule! and even in the lodge we 
could hear the curious clatter made by a band of travel- 
ing caribou. La joule had really come, and during its 
passage of six days I was able to realize what an extraor- 
dinary number of these animals still roam in the Barren 
Ground. From the ridge we had a splendia view of the 
migration; all the south shore of IMackay Lake was alive 



LATER EXPLORERS 193 

with moving beasts, while the ice seemed to be dotted 
all over with black islands, and still away to the north 
shore, with the aid of the glasses, we could see them 
coming like regiments on the march. In every direction 
we could hear the grunting noise that the caribou always 
make when traveling; the snow was broken into broad 
roads, and I found it useless to try to estimate the num- 
ber that passed within a few miles of our encampment. 
We were just on the western edge of this passage, and 
afterwards heard that a band of Dog-Ribs, hunting some 
forty miles to the west, were at this very time in the 
very last straits of starvation, only saving their lives by 
a hasty retreat into the woods, where they were lucky 
enough to kill sufficient meat to stave off disaster. . . . 
The caribou, as is usually the case when they are in large 
numbers, were very tame, and on several occasions I 
found myself right in the middle of a band with a splendid 
chance to pick out any that seemed in good condition. 
The rutting season was just over, and as the bulls had 
lost all their fat and their meat was too strong to eat, 
only does were killed. A good deal of experience is neces- 
sary to tell the fat ones, but the half-breeds can tell age 
and sex pretty well by the growth of the horns; often King 
told me which to shoot at, and it was seldom that he 
made a mistake in his choice." 

Pike says that he cannot believe that the buffalo herds 
on the prairies ever surpassed in numbers La joule of the 
caribou, and this statement is borne out by other trav- 
elers in the Barren Ground. Ernest Thompson Seton, 
who made a trip thither in 1907, estimated the total 
number of caribou in the region at thirty millions, but 
his figures are probably too large. Even now these great 
herds are rarely disturbed by white hunters. 



194 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

On November nth Pike, two of the younger Beaulieus, 
and five Yellow Knife Indians set out once more with 
six sleighs, drawn by twenty-four dogs, for the Barren 
Ground to hunt musk-oxen. The meat caches that had 
been established along the way helped the party greatly. 
A few days' travel brought them to the edge of the last 
timber, " the Land of Little Sticks," and from there they 
were forced to haul a supply of wood for use further on. 
Nine days of travel found them far out in the Barren 
Ground, with their wood almost exhausted and their food 
all gone. The dogs were so ravenous that they had to 
be watched continually to prevent them from eating their 
harness and the leather lodge. Luckily the hunters dis- 
covered two big herds of musk-oxen, so the party struck 
camp and made for the nearest herd. 

" After traveling about three miles through some rough 
hills," says Pike, " we caught an indistinct view of the 
musk-ox, fully a hundred in number, standing on a hill- 
side from which most of the snov/ had drifted away; and 
then followed a wonderful scene such as I believe no 
white man has ever looked on before. I noticed the In- 
dians throwing off their mitten-strings, and on inquiring 
the reason I was told that the musk-ox would often charge 
at a bright color, particularly red; this story must, I 
think, have originated from the Whites in connection with 
the old red-rag theory, and been applied by the Indians 
to the rftusk-ox. I refused to part with my strings, as 
they are useful in keeping the mittens from falling in the 
snow when the hand is taken out to shoot, but I was 
given a wide berth while the hunt was going on. Every- 
body started at a run, but the dogs, which had been let 
out of harness, were ahead of us, and the first thing that 
I made out clearly through the driving snow was a dense 



LATER EXPLORERS 195 

black mass galloping right at us; the band had proved 
too big for the dogs to hold and most of the musk-ox 
had broken away. I do not think they knew anything 
about men or had the least intention of charging us, but 
they passed within ten yards, and so frightened my com- 
panions that I was the only man to fire at them, rolling 
over a couple. The dogs, however, were still holding a 
small lot at bay, and these we slaughtered without any 
more trouble than killing cattle in a yard. There is an 
idea prevalent in the North that on these occasions the 
old musk-ox form into a regular square, with the young 
in the center for better protection against the dogs, which 
they imagine to be wolves; but on the two occasions when 
I saw a band held in this manner, the animals were 
standing in a confused mass, shifting their position to 
make a short run at a too impetuous dog, and with the 
young ones as often as not in the front of the line. There 
was some rather reckless shooting going on, and I was 
glad to leave the scene of slaughter with !Marlo in pursuit 
of stragglers. IVIarlo. in common with the other Indians, 
had a great horror of musk-ox at close quarters, and I 
was much amused at seeing him stand off at seventy yards 
and miss an animal which a broken back had rendered 
incapable of rising. He said afterwards that the musk-ox 
were not like other animals; they were very cunning, 
could understand what a man was sajdng and play many 
tricks to deceive him; it was not safe to go too near, and 
he would never allow me to walk up within a few yards 
to put in a finishing shot. After killing off the cripples, 
we started back to the place where we had left the 
sleighs, and, night having added its darkness to the drift- 
ing snow, we had the greatest difficulty in finding camp. 
IMarlo confessed he was lost, and we were thinking what 



196 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

it was best to do for the night when we heard the ring 
of an ax r/ith which somebody was splitting wood in the 
lodge. . . . We had eaten nothing for a long time, so 
we celebrated our success with a big feast of meat, while 
the dogs helped themselves from the twenty carcasses 
that were lying about. They gave us very little trouble 
in the lodge, as we saw nothing of them till we skinned 
the musk-ox next day, when two or three round white 
heaps of snow would uncurl themselves on the lee-side 
of a half-eaten body." 

Late the next afternoon, while the others were setting 
up the lodge, Pike " climbed to the top of a high butte 
to have a look at the surrounding country; the hill was 
so steep that I had to take off my snowshoes to struggle 
to the summit, and was rewarded for my trouble by a 
good view of probably the most complete desolation that 
exists upon the face of the earth. There is nothing strik- 
ing or grand in the scenery, no big mountains or water- 
falls, but a monotonous snow-covered waste, without tree 
or shrub, rarely trodden by the foot of the wandering 
Indian. A deathly stillness hangs over all, and the op- 
pressive loneliness weighs over the spectator till he is 
glad to shout aloud to break the awful spell of solitude. 
Such is the land of the musk-ox in snowtime; here this 
strange animal finds abundance of its favorite lichens, and 
defies the cold that has driven every other living thing to 
the woods for shelter." 

Later the party attacked two other bands of musk-ox 
and killed so many that the sleds were loaded down with 
heads and robes. The hunters then turned homeward, 
and after many hardships Pike reached Great Slave Lake. 
He spent the remainder of the winter at Fort Resolution, 
making an occasional hunt after caribou or wood buffalo. 



LATER EXPLORERS I97 

In the spring, with Mackinlay, the head of that post, a 
white man named Murdo Mackay, and a party of half- 
breeds and Indians, he set out northward once more, and 
succeeded in descending the Great Fish River as far as 
Beechey Lake, where they found traces of Eskimos. On 
this trip Pike saw many interesting sights and experienced 
many adventures, but there is space to tell of only one 
more mtisk-ox hunt. One day along the Great Fish 
River an Indian spied a large band of these animals, and 
as the women were badly in need of hides with which to 
make moccasins, a hunt was arranged in a fashion that 
Pike had not seen before. 

" Most of the guns crossed the river, and a spot was 
selected for the slaughter just where the stream broad- 
ened out into a small lake; at right angles to the river 
mounds of stone and moss were put up at a few yards' 
distance from each other, ornamented with coats, belts, 
and gun-covers, and behind the outside mound Capot 
Blanc took up his position. A steep hill ran parallel with 
the stream about two hundred yards away, and along this 
guns were posted at intervals, with the intention of head- 
ing the musk-ox toward the water. Noel and Mario, sup- 
posed to be the two best runners, were to make a long 
round and start the band in our direction; I was sta- 
tioned with three other guns among some broken rocks 
on the south side of the river, just opposite the barrier; 
and orders were given that no shot should be fired till the 
musk-ox took to the water. 

" It was a most interesting scene, and I would not will- 
ingly have changed places with any of the loyal Canadians 
who were at this time celebrating the anniversary of 
Dominion Day, with much rye whiskey, a thousand miles 
to the southward. I had plenty of time to admire the 



198 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

surrounding landscape, and the sunset that lit up the 
snow-drifts on each side of the river; when suddenly 
over the opposite ridge appeared the horns of a band of 
caribou, and for a moment the leader was outlined 
against the sky as he paused to look at the strange 
preparations going on in the valley below. Behind me 
a ptarmigan, perched on a rock, crowed defiance; but 
there was no other sound, except the rush of water and 
the occasional grinding of an ice-pan dislodged from 
some small lake in the course of the stream. Fully an 
hour we sat among the rocks, and were beginning to think 
that the hunt had miscarried, when we heard a distant 
shouting far down the valley, and the next moment caught 
sight of a scurrying black mass crossing a spur of the hill 
close to the river's bank. The men posted along the 
ridge took up the cry as the musk-ox passed them, and 
joined in the chase; soon the animals came to the barrier, 
and pulled up short at the apparition, while, to increase 
the alarm, the hoary head of Capot Blanc arose from 
behind a mound of rocks right in front of them. This 
was the critical moment, and they would certainly have 
taken to the water and been at the mercy of their pur- 
suers but for an untimely shot that caused them to break, 
and I was not sorry to see that several of the band 
escaped. I had had a splendid view till now, as the 
musk-ox halted within twenty yards of me, but we were 
forced to lie low when the shooting began, as the bullets 
were rattling freely among the rocks in which we were 
hiding. We did no shooting on our side of the river, 
except to finish off a couple that took to the water; seven 
were killed in all, six cows and a calf about a month old; 
there were no bulls in the band, and from what I after- 
wards saw they seemed to keep separate from the cows 



LATER EXPLORERS i99 

during the summer. A solitary old bull is often met with 
at this time of the year. 

" When the hunt was over, I inquired the meaning of 
the shouting that had been kept up so continuously 
throughout the drive, and was informed that this was 
necessary to let the musk-ox know which way to run. At 
starting they had shouted: ' Oh, musk-ox, there is a bar- 
rier planted for you down there, where the river joins 
the little lake; when you reach it take to the water, there 
are men with guns on both sides, and so we shall kill 
you all '; when the men are out of breath, they shout 
to the musk-ox to stop, and, after they have rested, to go 
on again. These animals are said to understand every 
word of the Yellow Knife language, though it seems 
strange that they do not make use of the information 
they receive to avoid danger instead of obeying orders. 
The partial failure of the hunt was attributed to the fact 
that Moise had called across the river to me in French, 
and the musk-ox had not been able to understand this 
strange language." 

After his return to Fort Resolution Pike ascended 
Peace River to the Great Canyon, and thence late in 
November set out in a canoe with two white men, an 
Indian, and a half-breed to go up the Peace through the 
Rocky Mountains and follow its southern headwater, 
Parsnip River, to Fort McLeod, intending to go from 
there to Vancouver. But the river froze before they 
reached Finlay Forks, and while attempting to ascend 
the Parsnip on foot they lost their way and went up 
Nation River. After weeks of suffering from cold and 
starvation in this wilderness of mountains — a region 
which I have myself twice passed through — they finally 
made their way back, in an almost dying condition, to 



200 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

a trading post at tlie Canyon. From there, later in the 
winter, Pike traveled overland to Edmonton and Calgary. 

Pike related his experiences in a book entitled The 
Barren Ground of Northern Canada. It is a classic of 
adventure and exploration in the Canadian wilderness, 
and is to me the most fascinating book of all the many 
that have been published on this subject. A few years 
after his return from the Barren Ground Pike made a 
trip up the Stikine River, crossed over to the headwaters 
of the Liard, and thence to those of the Yukon, and 
descended that mighty river almost to its mouth. His 
adventures on this long journey are set forth in Through 
the Sub- Arctic Forest. 

In 1893 J- S. Tyrrell and J. W. Tyrrell, in the interest 
of the Canadian government, traveled from Lake Atha- 
basca to Hudson Bay and came near starving to death on 
the stormy western coast of Hudson Bay. Their experi- 
ences are related in a book called Across the Sub-Arctics 
of Canada. Two years later Caspar Whitney made an 
adventurous winter journey in search of musk-ox, and 
in graphic language he describes his experiences in On 
Snow-shoes to the Barren Grounds. In 1907 Ernest 
Thompson Seton, the well-known naturalist and artist, 
and Edward Preble, a scientist connected with the United 
States Biological Survey, penetrated into the region north 
of Great Slave Lake, and Seton has written in a most 
interesting way of the caribou migrations and other fea- 
tures of the region in his The Arctic Prairies. Several 
other hunters and explorers have traveled in the Barren 
Grounds, but in many respects the most remarkable trips 
thither are those described by David Hanbury in his 
Sport and Travel in the Northland of Canada. 

Hanbury repeatedly crossed the Barren Grounds be- 



LATER EXPLORERS 201 

tween Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay, following dur- 
ing part of the way the course of the Arkilinik River, 
which he considered much the easiest route. In February, 
1902, with two white men and some Eskimos, he left 
Hudson Bay, ascended Chesterfield Inlet on the ice, 
crossed over to Great Fish River and followed that stream 
to its mouth, taking with him two light canoes drawn 
on dog-sledges, traveled westward along the Arctic coast, 
first with sledges and then in the canoes, to the mouth of 
the Coppermine, ascended that river to above the Bloody 
Falls, and then followed to its headwaters a small western 
tributary known as Kendall River. There the Eskimos 
turned back, while the three white men crossed the divide 
to Great Bear Lake and ultimately reached Fort Norman. 

The most remarkable feature of this long journey is 
that in making it Hanbury, already an experienced and 
rsourceful Northland traveler, did not attempt to carry 
much provision with him but lived off the country. Hav- 
ing won the confidence of the Eskimos, he was able to 
make use of their unrivaled knowledge of how to obtain 
subsistence. Though more than once entirely out of 
food, the party was never actually starving, and the 
white men reached civilization in good condition. In 
fact, Hanbury's skill as a traveler compares very favor- 
ably with that of Simpson and Rae. His book ig full of 
suggestions as to methods, and Vilhjalmur Stefansson 
says that he obtained more aid from it than from all 
other books combined. Stefansson himself attained a 
proficiency in this kind of travel that has perhaps never 
been equaled, but his remarkable work, both as an ex- 
plorer and an ethnologist, is too fresh in the public mind 
to need description here. 

In the vast territory west of the Mackenzie the main 



202 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

geographical features — the mountain chains, the great 
rivers and lakes — were slowly ascertained by fur traders 
and other explorers. In later years notable work in this, 
as in other regions, was done by the Canadian Geo- 
logical Survey, particularly under Dr. George M. 
Dawson, a distinguished scientist, who himself conducted 
several expeditions. In the last thirty years enthusiastic 
mountain climbers — some of them from England and 
the United States — have done much to explore the 
mighty maze of mountains in southern British Columbia, 
and the Canadian Alpine Club makes an expedition to 
the region every year. 

As early as 1840 Robert Campbell of the Hudson's 
Bay Company ascended the Liard River to its head- 
waters and crossed over to the Pelly, one of the tribu- 
taries of the Yukon. Eight years later he established a 
fur post called Fort Selkirk at the junction of the Lewes 
and Pelly. This post was so remote that seven years 
would elapse between the time trade goods left London 
for Fort Selkirk and the time that the furs obtained in 
exchange arrived. 

Notwithstanding the many journeys of fur traders and 
other explorers, there still exist in the vast Canadian 
Northland several large primeval areas that have never 
been pressed by the feet of white men. 

Having been born with a fondness for penetrating into 
the unknown " beyond the farthest camping ground and 
the last tin can," the author in 1916 made an attempt to 
explore one of these areas, namely, that lying between 
the headwaters of the Peace and Liard rivers. This 
area, according to a writer in the American Geographic 
Magazine, had a total extent of about twenty-eight thou- 
sand square miles. That so large a region at so late a 



i 



LATER EXPLORERS 203 

date had never been explored seems incredible. But it 
should not be forgotten that British Columbia, in which 
the region lies, is larger than some empires. Twenty 
Switzerlands could be set down in it, and there would still 
be room for England, Scotland, and two or three other 
countries. Almost the whole of it is one mighty mass of 
rugged mountains, and, except where there are railroads 
or navigable rivers, the difficulties attending travel are 
tremendous. Dangerous rapids and mighty canyons bar 
the way on most of the streams, and even along those that 
can be navigated with comparative ease the traveler be- 
gins to meet with obstacles the moment he attempts to 
penetrate the country beyond the banks. Furthermore, 
the summer season is short, and expeditions almost al- 
ways travel hurriedly in order to avoid being caught in 
the far interior by the freeze-up. In consequence, even 
along such a stream as Peace River, the main course of 
which has been known for over a century, there exist 
within a few miles of the stream areas never penetrated 
by white men; this is true even of that stretch of the 
river where it bursts through the Rockies. As for rail- 
roads, there were none in either northern or central 
British Columbia until the building of the Grand Trunk 
Pacific, completed in 1 913. In northern Alberta a rail- 
road running from Edmonton reached the lower Peace 
early in 1916. By using the first of these roads going in 
and the second coming out I was able to shorten my trip 
by about eight hundred miles — to travel by rail through 
regions that hitherto could only be traversed with pack- 
train or canoe in summer and dog-sledge in winter. But 
even with this saving the canoe trip to and from the 
unexplored region was almost a thousand miles long. 
With a resourceful French Canadian named Joe 



204 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Lavoie I left the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway at the 
little station of Hansard on the upper Fraser. Our outfit 
consisted of rifles, light tents, provisions, blankets, and a 
light canvas-covered canoe. Descending the Fraser 
thirty-five miles to Giscome Portage, we crossed the 
eight-mile divide to Summit Lake, and thence by Crooked 
River, Lake McLeod, Pack River, and the Parsnip we 
floated down to the point where the Parsnip is joined by 
the Finlay from the north, thereby forming the mighty 
Peace, whicn at once proceeds to break its way through 
the black mountain wall of the Rockies toward the 
Mackenzie and the Arctic sea. 

Thirteen days of poling, tracking, and portaging up 
Finley River brought us to the mouth of the Quadacha 
or White Water, a considerable tributary flowing in from 
the northeast. As early as 1824 John Finlay, in the 
interest of the Hudson's Bay Company, had ascended the 
main river to its source, and in more recent years ex- 
plorers, prospectors, and trappers had also gone as far 
as the Long Canyon or farther, but no white man had 
been any distance up the Quadacha, and it was around 
the headwaters of this stream that the unexplored region 
lay that we wished to penetrate. A glance at its water 
was enough to convince me that mighty glaciers lay about 
its head, for the flood it poured into the clear waters of 
the Finlay was almost as white as milk. Lavoie was of 
opinion that the color was due to " white cut-banks," but 
past experience enabled me to know that it was caused 
by big glaciers ("rock mills" one might call them) 
grinding up silt. 

The Quadacha looked so swift and turbid that we left 
the canoe and most of our outfit cached on an island 
not far from the mouth and struck out overland with 



LATER EXPLORERS 205 

pack-sacks. The country we traversed was a terrible 
tangle of mountains, the lower slopes of which were cum- 
bered with down timber. We had hoped to eke out our 
provisions by killing game or catching fish, as we had 
usually been able to do hitherto, but in this we failed. 
After five days of weary work we finally reached a point 
where the Quadacha forked; there, as our food supply 
was running short, we decided to turn back. Luckily 
next day we climbed a high peak from which we had a 
magnificent view over the unexplored country. Far to 
the northeastward we beheld a magnificent mountain, 
much taller than any other in that region, and an im- 
mense ice field, certainly one of the largest in the whole 
Rocky Mountain system. Both of these I later named 
after Lloyd George, the great British statesman. 

After returning to our canoe we ascended the Finlay 
to beyond Fox River and penetrated the region north of 
what is known as the Long Canyon. Again we had no suc- 
cess hunting and presently found ourselves seven days' 
journey from our canoe and cache with only a scanty 
two days' supply of " grub." It looked as if we might 
go hungry before we could get back to our base, but the 
following day I was lucky enough to kill a fine fat black 
bear and the next day two Stone's mountain sheep, or 
black sheep, so that we had an abundance of good meat. 
And I might add here that " mountain mutton " is the 
best game meat I have ever tasted. 

On my return home — we came out by way of the lower 
Peace and Peace River Landing — the story of the trip 
appeared in two numbers of Scribner's Magazine and in 
more extended form in a book entitled On the Head- 
waters of Peace River. 

The trip had been a long and exhausting one, but the 



2o6 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

memory of that magnificent mountain and glittering ice- 
field filled my thoughts by day and my dreams by night 
until the call proved too strong to be resisted. One day 
in early August of 191 9 found me again alighting from 
a Grand Trunk Pacific train at Hansard prepared to set 
out once more on the quest by the same route. 

My companion was Alban P. Chesterfield, a young 
Detroit surgeon, who had had considerable experience in 
the wilds of Ontario but who was making his first trip 
amid high mountains. At Summit Lake we had the good 
fortune to secure the services of George Holben, a husky 
young trapper, prospector, and Indian trader whom I had 
met at McLeod Lake on the previous trip. From Summit 
Lake as far as Finlay Forks we also had the company 
of a character well-known in the Hudson's Hope region, 
namely, " Dad " Brennan, formerly a cook in the cow 
country of Montana but hailing originally from the 
Ozark hills. As Brennan had lost one eye and could not 
see any too well out of the other, he was glad to have 
one of us ride in his canoe and read the water for him; 
an arrangement that was also helpful to us, for our 
eighteen-foot canvas-covered canoe was heavily laden 
with food and other impedimenta. 

We had started with an outboard motor, which we ex- 
pected would prove very helpful on the long river trip, 
but it did not run properly at the beginning, and we soon 
had the misfortune to wet the magneto, after which the 
thing was altogether useless, so we left it at Summit Lake. 
This was doubly unfortunate, for not only was the trip 
rendered much more laborious but we moved more slowly 
and lost valuable time. 

We floated rather leisurely down Crooked River, a de- 
lectable little stream where we caught many rainbow and 



LATER EXPLORERS 207 

Dolly Varden trout and added an occasional grouse or 
duck to the larder. It was vitally necessary thus to sup- 
plement our commissariat, for the distance to be traveled 
was so great that it was impossible to take with us suf- 
ficient food for the trip. In fact, it may be said that 
we fished and shot our way to Mt. Lloyd George. 

Late one afternoon on the Parsnip while riding in the 
bow of the foremost canoe I happened to spy on a low- 
cut bank far ahead a black object that presently resolved 
itself into a bear. Luckily the wind was favorable, and 
bruin was busily engrossed in the work of raking open 
ant hills and licking up the inmates as they crawled over 
the ruins of their homes. George steered the canoe close 
inshore, and we drifted quietly down upon the unsus- 
pecting plantigrade. When we were within seventy 
yards, the bear suddenly looked up. There was a thicket 
of willows close by, and knowing that in a moment he 
would bolt out of sight, I let drive with my sporting 
Springfield. The bullet landed, but the bear half fell, 
half sprang into the thicket. In a few moments Doodle, 
George's little twelve-pound fox terrier, and I were ashore, 
but the soft-point bullet had done its work well, and 
another shot was not required. 

Doodle, who was only a pup, was wildly excited. It 
was his first opportunity to chew up and shake a bear, 
and he joyously made the most of it! Holben and I 
dragged the animal down on the beach, and just then the 
second canoe arrived. Kinky, Brennan's little fox terrier 
bitch, at once sprang ashore and came rushing up to see 
what Doodle was barking about. But when she saw the 
bear and got his wind, her stump of a tail went down and 
she hastily took refuge at the farther end of her master's 
canoe. However, we managed to convince her that there 



2o8 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

was no danger, and ultimately she joined Doodle in the 
exciting work of shaking the bear. For half an hour 
those little dogs kept biting and gnawing away, while 
their shrill ki-ki-ing resounded over the river and up 
through the spruce-covered hills. Finally, with tongues 
lolling out, they lay down beside the kill, with satisfac- 
tion written over their eager little faces. 

When we reached Finlay River we found it in flood, 
which meant that what would have been a hard task at 
best would be more than ever difficult. But we cut down 
our load, and for fourteen days, through a changing 
panorama of high mountains, we bucked the current with 
paddles, poles, and tracking-line. As Holben and the 
doctor were both better canoe-men than I, most of the 
tracking fell to me. When not pulling on the rope, I 
often trudged along the shore, and, with a little " game- 
getter," which had both a rifle- and a shot-barrel, man- 
aged to kill many of the willow-grouse and fool-hens 
which Doodle and I flushed. 

On the fifth day up the Finlay the doctor had a 
splendid shot at a brown bear, but missed it completely. 
Overeagerness, failure to take into account the way the 
animal was standing, and the fact that the hunter was 
shooting at a bear for the first time probably accounted 
for the miss, but Holben, who was inclined to be facetious, 
declared it was because the doctor did not take into 
account " the size of the bank around the mark." The 
miss was all the funnier because the doctor not half an 
hour before had been expatiating upon what he could do 
to a bear at three hundred yards. He did not hear the 
last of the episode until he duplicated the performance 
on the return trip. After that the subject became too 
tragic to be referred to lightly. 



LATER EXPLORERS 209 

At Fort Grahame, the little Hudson Bay post sixty 
miles up the Finlay, I renewed my acquaintance with 
Fox, the half-breed trader in charge, and also with a 
number of Indians I had met three years before. My 
introduction to these Indians on the previous occasion 
had not been an auspicious one, for I had shot a brown 
bear within hearing of the post, and when we pulled up 
to the landing, the sight of the hide and hindquarters 
brought a scowl to the face of every aborigine who was 
squatting on the bank watching us. However, we told 
the Indians where they could find the rest of the meat 
and this and a few gifts helped to establish friendly 
relations. 

These Indians are of the Siccanni tribe. There are now 
about sixty of them, and they hunt and trap over a region 
as large as Indiana. They buy guns, ammunition, some 
summer clothing, tea, sugar, tobacco, and a few other 
articles from the post, but their main dependence for a 
livelihood is upon the game they kill. Moose is their 
staff of life, with rabbit standing second. They also slay 
bears, sheep, goats, caribou, and whistlers; these last are 
a sort of marmot, whose fat flesh is highly esteemed and 
out of whose skins the Indians make warm robes. Most 
of the rabbits are caught by the squaws in snares, and it 
sometimes happens that a camp has nothing whatever to 
eat except rabbit meat. This state of affairs is consid- 
ered the next worst thing to starving, as rabbit is not 
very toothsome as a steady diet and seems to have little 
sustaining power. However, rabbits are better than 
nothing, and when they are scarce, which happens every 
seven years, when most of them die of a mysterious 
disease, both lynxes and Siwash are likely to be frequently 
on short commons. 



210 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Among the Indians at Grahame was an old squaw 
whose picture I had taken surreptitiously at Fox River 
on the previous trip. I had sent the picture to her through 
the trader and had also sent him a copy of Scribner's, 
in which the picture was reproduced. Fox had shown 
the magazine to her son and had said: "Your mother's 
picture will now be seen by the people of all the world." 
This had seemed very fine to the aboriginal mind, and I 
now found everybody ready to pose with the utmost 
willingness. 

These Indians are so remote from civilization that they 
had escaped an epidemic of measles which the winter be- 
fore had wiped out half the tribe at McLeod's Lake, and 
the influenza, which had killed most of the bucks among 
the Beaver Indians in the Hudson's Hope country on the 
plains side of the Rockies. 

A few days later, a little below the mouth of a creek 
called Paul's Branch, v/e met two moose-hide boats 
loaded down with Chief Pierre's family. Aleck and Dan, 
whom I had met three years before, recognized me when 
afar off and greeted me as an old friend. Both are intel- 
ligent, energetic fellows and splendid moose-hunters, 
about the highest type of Indian I have met. We had 
a friendly powwow of an hour or so on the beach, and 
there was much picture taking. 

When I was in tlie country before, all these Indians 
lived in tents, the year round, but Aleck told us proudly 
that he had built a cabin at the mouth of the Ackie. His 
brother Dan was anxious to be the first of his people to 
visit the outside world and see steamboats, railroads, and 
automobiles, of which he had heard wonderful tales. 
But there was one thing that troubled him. 

" When I get in white man's country," said he, " must 



LATER EXPLORERS 211 

I carry my grub and when I get hungry stop, build fire, 
and cook a feed? " 

At noon of the fourteenth day from the Forks and the 
twenty-fourth from the railroad we at last came in sight 
of the milky water of the Quadacha, and here, in a sense, 
the trip really began. Three years before the river had 
looked so forbidding that Lavoie and I had cached our 
stuff a few hundred yards upstream and had struck off 
into the unexplored region with pack-sacks. But I was 
determined this time to work the canoe up the river as 
far as possible and to get our base of supplies as near our 
goal as was practicable. I knew that some stretches of 
the stream were navigable, but there were other stretches 
I had not seen in which there might be all sorts of 
obstacles. So far as I am aware no white man had ever 
even attempted to ascend the stream, but Aleck had told 
us that the Indians sometimes came down it on rafts. 

Navigation proved bad enough but better than I had 
feared. At the point where the stream issues from the 
mountains it flows between high rocky walls, but in this 
canyon the current, though very swift, was not impos- 
sible. By dint of paddling, poling, and almost constant 
tracking we managed after a little less than three days' 
work to reach the forks, which had marked the limit of 
my progress overland in 191 6. On the way we had 
skirted the base of the mountain called by me in my 
book " Observation Peak," but renamed by the Canadian 
Geographical Board " Mount Haworth." It is one of the 
ugliest, most God-forsaken peaks in all Canada! 

As in 1 91 6, the east fork was the whiter stream, and 
up it we turned our canoe, for I then supposed that at its 
headwaters we would find Mt. Lloyd George and the 
big ice-field. The stream soon proved very bad indeed. 



212 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Repeatedly we had to carry around great log- jams or cut 
our way through them, but still we made steady progress. 
However, late in the afternoon of September 8, our fifth 
day on the Quadacha, the mountains pinched in on the 
river, the current grew swifter, and we heard ahead the 
roar of rapids. 

As we had ascended the Quadacha game signs had be- 
come more and more abundant, due to the fact that we 
were getting out of the range of the Indians. The bars 
were covered with moose, caribou, and bear tracks, and 
beneath a great limestone cliff at the forks we had seen 
goat tracks. On one bar I had seen where a big wolf 
had pulled down and eaten a calf moose that had wan- 
dered too far from its mother's protecting care. And 
now, just as it was coming time to camp, I discovered 
a great muddy hole in the river bank that had been dug 
out by moose which came there to drink a sort of min- 
eral water that trickled out. This water smelled and 
tasted much like that at the famous French Lick Springs 
of Indiana. AVhatever its mineral properties were the 
moose were evidently very fond of it. Their trails, in 
places worn two feet deep, converged toward it from both 
sides of the river like highways toward a city. 

We had been making heavy inroads of late into our 
provisions, and it was highly desirable that we obtain 
meat. We camped a few hundred yards above the lick, 
and I sent the doctor to keep watch with instructions to 
shoot anything eatable that might appear. I then set out 
to climb the mountain-side behind camp in order to get 
a look ahead, while Holben walked up the river to ex- 
amine the rapids. 

After climbing several hundred feet I made the un- 
pleasant discovery that the river, which above the forks 



LATER EXPLORERS 213 

had been following an almost east and west course, 
turned southeastward a few miles ahead, instead of 
northeastward, as I had expected. While I was still cogi- 
tating upon this unexpected discovery there resounded 
from down in the valley four thunderous reports from 
the doctor's high-power .35 caliber Newton. As it was 
already growing dusk, nothing could be gained by climb- 
ing higher, so I descended to camp and there Holben 
presently appeared with the discouraging word that he 
believed that we had reached the head of navigation. 
Soon the doctor came in through the darkness with news 
that he had shot a young moose, so we were assured 
of an ample supply of fresh meat. 

Holben's report on the river ahead was so unfavorable 
that we decided to take to the hills. Next morning we 
made a cache in the woods some distance below the moose 
lick. We pitched the larger tent and put some of our 
belongings in it, but all of the food we put on a platform 
fastened between two spruce trees. The canoe we drew 
up into the woods to a place where no tree would be 
likely to fall on it. 

About three o'clock in the afternoon we struck off into 
the mountains with pack-sacks. We took with us a 
double blanket apiece, a meager cooking outfit, a strip 
of canvas, a four and a half pound balloon-silk forester 
tent, and provisions for about eight days. Each man had 
a rifle, and George carried a " half-axe." 

As those who have tried it know, back-packing through 
the mountains is the hardest work a man ever tried. 
Holben and I were both out of practice, while it was 
Chesterfield's first experience. But we made eleven hun- 
dred feet by aneroid before camping, and thirteen hun- 
dred more the next morning, and by noon had topped the 



514 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

first range, which had an altitude of fifty-one hundred 
feet. So far good, but when we had moved northeast- 
ward along a grassy alpine valley for a couple of miles 
we came to a deep cleft which reached down almost to 
the level of the river, and it was clear that we had 
climbed too soon. Here we flushed a covey of big blue 
grouse, which alighted in balsam trees, and Chesterfield 
shot three with a little .22 pistol. 

Leaving my pack near where we found the grouse, I 
climbed a thousand feet to the top of a summit on the 
left and from thence obtained at last a view of our long 
sought goal. Before me, above the next range, towered 
the three snow-capped peaks of Mt. Lloyd George, 
while for miles to right and left of them stretched away 
the great white ice-field of my dreams. It was truly 
a sublime spectacle, well worth the weeks of bitter effort 
the view had cost me, and yet disappointment mingled 
with my exaltation. The mountain was farther away than 
I had hoped, and the range between ran parallel with, not 
toward, the Lloyd George range. Clearly much hard 
work lay before us. Holben's enthusiasm for the search 
was already visibly evaporating, the doctor's determina- 
tion was stronger than his ability as a packer, and I 
realized that even yet we might have to turn back without 
reaching the goal. 

I noticed that the valley ahead rose rapidly to west- 
ward, and in the hope that it would reach such an eleva- 
tion that we would not have to descend far we followed 
along its rim until near sunset. We made camp in a 
little grassy glade, with dwarfed balsam trees handy for 
beds and firewood. Owing to the presence of slide rock, 
water was scarce, but I managed to find a tiny rill and 
obtained a scanty supply. The rill was surrounded on 



LATER EXPLORERS 215 

all sides by a dense willow thicket, and while I was wait- 
ing for the water to collect in a hole I had dug in the 
gravel I heard a noise in the thicket. Thinking it was 
one of my companions, I called out; as there was no 
answer, I realized that it was an animal of some sort. 
But the willows were so thick I could not see ten feet 
through them. In fact, I never even caught a glimpse 
of the animal, but subsequently I found, about sixty feet 
away, the fresh tracks of a big grizzly bear. He had 
stolen quietly out on the other side. 

Three hours of travel next morning found us still on 
the first range, while far above and behind us towered 
the black, craggy peaks of the culminating summit. 
Four hundred feet beneath us lay the barrier valley which 
had, as we had hoped, risen to timber-line. Beyond this 
pass rose another peak, its middle slopes covered with 
grass and dwarf balsam, its summit a rugged mass of 
crumbling slate. It was ideal country in which to hunt, 
and even as we sat feasting our eyes on the prospect, 
Chesterfield noticed a bull caribou walking along the 
mountain slope opposite. The animal caught sight of 
us almost at the same time, and when the doctor moved 
to obtain a better position from which to shoot, the bull 
turned and ran up the mountain-side. But after going 
twenty or thirty yards his fatal curiosity got the better 
of him and he turned broadside on for another look. 
Both of us let drive but without result. The bull ran a 
few yards and again stopped. Quickly raising the Lyman 
sight on my breech-bolt from three hundred and fifty 
to four hundred and fifty yards, I took steady aim, rest- 
ing my elbows on my knees, and fired again. The Spring- 
field bullet told with a resounding smack, and the bull 
went down. Soon he was up again, but it was clear that 



2i6 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

he was disabled, and we all thought from his behavior 
that he was hit in the lungs. 

Descending into the valley, we left our packs there and 
climbed up to the game. We found the bull lying in 
some dwarf balsam. He stood up as we approached, and 
then we saw that he was shot through the windpipe. He 
was of the Osborn species^ still young and with rather 
small antlers, from which a few strips of " velvet " were 
still hanging. He looked ugly and displayed a disposi- 
tion to charge, but by keeping above him we managed 
to take a number of pictures at close range. Doodle 
was too venturesome. He rushed in on the bull and 
began snapping at his heels, whereupon the caribou 
charged him with surprising agility, and, striking a light- 
ning blow with his big front feet, landed on the terrier's 
back. Luckily it was a glancing blow, else it would have 
been the end of Doodle. The terrier gave an agonized 
yelp and took refuge in some bushes. Thereafter he 
was more wary in his demonstrations. 

" We don't want to skin the bull here," said Holben 
presently. " We'll just drive him down into the valley." 

By much shouting and throwing of sticks and stones 
we finally did get the bull down into the grassy pass, and 
there the doctor administered the coup de grace with his 
.2 2 pistol. The antlers seemed hardly worth the labor 
of carrying out, but we took the skin, and I used it most 
of the rest of the trip for a bed, a purpose it served ad- 
mirably. We also took as much meat as we could carry. 
Holben cut off the ribs on one side and roasted them 
before the fire. That night we ate unbelievable quanti- 
ties of caribou meat, which stands next after mountain 
mutton in my estimation. 

By noon next day, after a hard and dangerous climb 



LATER EXPLORERS 217 

over rotten slate ledges, we topped the next range and 
beheld a magnificent panorama. Four thousand feet 
beneath us lay the valley of the North Fork, or Warne- 
ford River, while beyond towered range after range of 
rugged peaks. Most conspicuous, of course, were Mt. 
Lloyd George and the great ice-field. We could see the 
upper part of three glacier snouts descending from the 
field, but their lower portions were cut off from view. 
Far to the northwest along the same range was another 
large glacier, distant perhaps twenty miles from us. 
Below it lay an emerald-green lake, probably seven or 
eight miles long and studded with a dozen rocky islands. 
Somewhat farther down the valley were a number of 
large ponds, while southeast of Lloyd George lay another 
lake, only slightly smaller than the first and surrounded 
on three sides by tall mountains. 

The scene held for me one big surprise. Ever since 
the 1 91 6 trip I had believed that the Lloyd George gla- 
ciers drained into the East Fork of the Quadacha, and 
that it was they that made " the Quadacha white." But 
now I saw that those before us formed the main sources 
of the West Fork, or as I had named it, Warneford 
River, and that the white water of the East Fork must 
come from some other source. 

Steep cliffs made any descent into the valley at that 
place impossible, so we moved along the top of the range. 
Not until late in the afternoon did we reach a place 
where a descent seemed practicable, and by that time we 
were back to a point near but far above the East Fork 
of the Quadacha. For more than three days we had 
been traveling in a vast semicircle, and our camp was 
not more than eight miles in a direct line from our canoe 
and cache. It was clear that if we had ascended the 



2i8 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

river a few miles more — and we later found that this 
could have been done — and had then climbed the range 
we were now on we would have saved an immense amount 
of effort. But it is often so when traveling in an unex- 
plored country. 

It was evident that the task of reaching Lloyd George 
would still be long and difficult. We were badly worn- 
out, so we spent the next day pottering about the camp 
and along the range. The next morning Holben set out 
for the cache to bring up more food. The doctor and I 
spent the two days while Holben was away hunting along 
the range to eastward. We found many old caribou 
tracks and droppings, and it was clear that a month 
earlier the animals had been there in considerable num- 
bers, but they had gone elsewhere, and we saw no game 
bigger than ptarmigan. 

We were able, however, to study the problem ahead at 
leisure and to obtain some fine views of Lloyd George. 
Two of the peaks appeared to be almost perfect cones, 
while the third and nearest was a rough block. When all 
other mountains in the region were in plain sight, the 
peaks of Lloyd George were often veiled in clouds. I 
realized that the mountain was taller than I had sup- 
posed and that the task of climbing it would be a serious 
one. Its height could hardly be less than ten thousand 
feet, which would make it considerably taller than any 
other peak in the Rockies north of the Robson region. 
However, the snow-field was the biggest spectacle, even 
though it seemed certain that the larger part of it was 
out of sight on the northern slope of the range. 

We were also able to obtain fairly good views of the 
upper Quadacha and of a fine range of snow-capped 
mountains in which part of it seemed to head. There are 



LATER EXPLORERS 219 

four of these peaks, and I have little doubt that the 
largest is the " Great Snow Mountain," seen by Frederick 
K. Vreeland from the Laurier Pass country to southward 
in 191 2. It seemed to us that one branch of the East 
Fork swung in behind the Lloyd George range, and I 
think it probable that this stream drains still greater 
glaciers on the north slope. 

Late in the afternoon of the second day Holben 
reached camp with a small load of food and with some 
disquieting news. He said that our last fire in the valley 
had caught in the peat-like soil and had burned a great 
hole eight or ten feet across and three or four feet deep. 
He had arrived just in time to save the tent and its con- 
tents, and he said that in a few hours more the fire would 
probably have begun running through the forest and 
would inevitably have destroyed both our canoe and 
cache. He had spent hours putting out the fire and on 
leaving supposed that he had done so, but on the way 
up to join us he had grown fearful that some sparks 
might still be smoldering and that these might start the 
conflagration afresh. It was greatly to our discredit as 
woodsmen that we had not thrown water on the fire when 
we left it, but only a few embers had remained and the 
soil was so damp that, though both Holben and I had 
thought of doing so, we had each decided it to be 
needless. 

After a consultation it was decided that Holben should 
return to camp and make sure, while the doctor and I 
should go on to Lloyd George alone. I was loth to lose 
Holben's aid as a packer, and I knew that his help in 
case a mishap should befall either of us would be in- 
valuable, but the possibility of being left five hundred 
and forty miles by river from railhead without either 



220 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

canoe or food was entirely too serious to be contemplated 
lightly. 

Next morning, taking our rifles, the little axe, the 
forester tent, a single blanket apiece, and what food we 
could carry, the doctor and I plunged down into the 
valley on our way to Lloyd George. The goal we had 
set for that day was a small glacier on the opposite 
range. By a little before sunset we reached the glacier 
and crossed it. We had seen many caribou tracks on the 
way, and the snow on the ice was trampled down and 
crimsoned with blood from the animals' soft horns, but 
of the animals themselves we caught no glimpse. How- 
ever, as I was selecting the site for the tent in a little 
glade among some balsam trees a big cock blue grouse 
walked out of the grass and stood staring at us until I 
decapitated him with a bullet from the Springfield. 
Surely he was a most obliging bird ! His weight was cer- 
tainly not less than five pounds, and he formed the main 
ingredient in a toothsome mulligan that lasted for three 
meals. 

I went to sleep that night believing that next day would 
be the crucial one of the whole trip. A high barrier ridge 
still lay between us and our goal, and though we had 
studied it long and eagerly through our glasses from the 
range behind us we felt by no means sure that we would 
be able to pass it. 

Reaching a big mountain is, in fact, not unlike secur- 
ing an interview with a great man : one must pass all sorts 
of obstacles before finally attaining the inner sanctum. 

Next morning we climbed the barrier ridge, only to 
find that on the other side it broke down in steep preci- 
pices. We attempted to follow the ridge but speedily 
became involved in a tangle of impassable cliffs. Turning 



LATER EXPLORERS 221 

down into the glacial valley again, we made our way 
slowly over slide rock to the mountain that rose at the 
head of the valley, and attempted to climb round its left 
shoulder. 

This mountain is absolutely the most barren peak it 
has ever been my lot to see. From this summit, on every 
side, down to timber-line its steep slopes are covered with 
slide rock, ranging from stones the size of one's fist up 
to huge boulders as big as a house. For hours we picked 
a perilous way round this peak, rarely sure of our footing 
and often becoming involved in frightful difficulties. But 
happily the slip that would have proved fatal never oc- 
cured, and about two o'clock in the afternoon we finally 
reached a long ridge which presently brought us in sight 
of what we were seeking. 

Once more Lloyd George and the great ice-field loomed 
up before us^, and we had a clear view of the three glaciers, 
rippling down for two thousand feet or more into the 
valley. In the valley itself an unexpected spectacle met 
our eyes: a gorgeous alpine lake six or seven miles long, 
a mile or more wide, and surrounded on three sides by 
high mountains. As usual the peaks of Lloyd George 
were partly veiled in clouds. 

We made a miserable camp that night on a rocky shelf 
just at timber-line, and had a hard time keeping our fire 
going because of shifting wind and gusts of snow and 
rain. By noon next day we reached the shores of the 
lake but rather the worse for wear. I myself was very 
weary, and the doctor was so exhausted that on the way 
down he had had a sort of mental lapse. He left his rifle 
lying on the mountain-side where we stopped to rest, and 
we had gone several hundred yards before I noticed it 
was missing. 



222 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

" Where is your gun? " I asked him. 

He held up his camera by its strap and answered in a 
sort of dazed way: " Isn't this it? " But presently he 
came to himself, and together we went back and recov- 
ered the weapon. 

After lunch he had a fit of vomiting, but his spirit was 
still strong, though the flesh was weak, and he insisted 
on accompanying me up the lake shore toward the 
glaciers. Leaving our pack-sacks under some spruce 
trees, we set out. 

Rarely have men walked amid grander surroundings, 
and, despite his illness, Chesterfield's spirits rose, while 
I forgot my stift'ened muscles and felt only the exaltation 
of success. Furthermore, Nature relented and furnished 
us a smooth level beach on which we walked almost as 
upon a pavement, except that now and then we would 
come to a bushy slideway through which we must pick 
our way. The beach was covered with game signs, in- 
cluding the tracks of grizzlies, while the saplings in the 
slides were scarred by bull caribou and moose cleaning 
their horns of " velvet " and testing their newly grown 
weapons. In the two days we were about the lake we 
saw six moose, all cows or calves. It was truly a virgin 
spot, one that seemingly had never been profaned even 
by the Indians. 

Three hours' walking brought us within a few hundred 
yards of the glaciers, but here our way was barred by 
a limestone precipice that reached down to the water's 
edge. The afternoon was already nearly spent, so re- 
luctantly we turned back toward our packs. Thus far 
the peaks of Lloyd George had been veiled with clouds, 
but for a few minutes they were revealed and from some 
distance down the lake I obtained pictures which showed 




" I had the good fortune to kill an immense bull 



LATER EXPLORERS 223 

them in dim outline. The closer-up pictures of the gla- 
ciers unfortunately proved unsuccessful. Two of the 
glaciers, I may say here, descend to the water level; the 
third ends at a cliff hundreds of feet up, and the water 
comes tumbling down in a fine feathery cascade. The 
smallest is hundreds of yards wide. 

It had been my hope, when I undertook the trip, to 
reach the top of the mountain, but I realized now that 
I must give up the thought. Only a larger party, well- 
equipped with an alpine outfit, could safely climb those 
rugged slopes of ice. In our present weakened state and 
without proper equipment such an attempt would have 
been little short of madness. For a time I considered 
building a raft and actually going to the foot of the gla- 
ciers, but there was Httle to be gained by doing so, as 
we had already been very close up. Furthermore, the 
effort would have taken a couple of days, the weather 
was threatening, the season was late, there was danger 
that we might be snowed in. So in the afternoon of the 
next day we took the homeward way. 

I had noticed from the heights that the outlet of the 
lake takes a very big drop, and I had resolved to inves- 
tigate this on the way back. Near the foot of the lake 
we passed an enormous beaver house, one of the largest 
I ever saw, though not quite so big as one we saw later 
near Quadacha Forks. We found the outlet of the lake 
to be a stream about eighty feet wide with a good volume 
of water. This little river has a descent of over a thou- 
sand feet in less than a mile. Right at the outlet there 
is a considerable cascade. Around a bend we came upon 
two more. Just below these the river lets go all holds 
and drops sheer almost two hundred feet, by aneroid 
measurement, in one of the prettiest falls one could wish 



224 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

to see. This final discovery formed the climax of the 
trip, and, needless to say, we were happy men. 

The great mountain, the immense snow-field, the three 
rippling rivers of ice, the emerald-green lake, the superb 
falls, form, all in all, a combination scarcely equalled in 
America. But it will be many years before tourists will 
visit the place. Personally I am glad of it. I should hate 
to think of that virgin wilderness being littered with dis- 
carded lunch-boxes and the landscape scarred with auto- 
mobile trails! 

Four days of hard travel brought us back once more 
to the canoe and cache, where I experienced great relief 
in finding everything safe. The rest of our stay in the 
Quadacha country was devoted to hunting, and we had 
numerous interesting experiences. In the twilight one 
evening I had the good fortune to kill an immense bull 
moose that was six feet eight inches high at the shoulder 
and that had a fine, symmetrical spread of antlers. But 
of this and of a startling adventure that befell us on our 
way down Peace River I shall not attempt to tell here. 

We had failed to climb Mount Lloyd George, but we 
had reached and photographed it, had mapped Warne- 
ford River and much of the East Fork of the Quadacha, 
had discovered two new lakes and definitely located a 
third that hitherto was known only by Indian report, and 
had found one of the finest falls in the world. Doubtless 
we should have had time and energy to do more had we 
not had the misfortune with our motor. As it was, we 
got out of the Finlay country just in time to escape the 
freeze-up, and it was eight degrees below zero the second 
night after we reached railhead at Peace River Landing. 

There still remains a big summer's work in the 
Quadacha regioii. Some party should trace the upper 



LATER EXPLORERS 225 

reaches of the East Fork, should climb Lloyd George, 
and should ascertain the exact dimensions of the snow- 
field. Such a party should start at least a month earlier 
than we were able to do. I have little doubt that on 
the northern slope of the Lloyd George range they will 
find glaciers even bigger than those we saw and photo- 
graphed. 

In other parts of the Canadian Northland there still 
exist other unexplored areas in which persons wishing to 
get in Back of Beyond can realize their desire. I have 
given somewhat in detail my own experiences, not pri- 
marily because of their importance, but as illustrating 
what can still be done in the far Northwest. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HOW AMUNDSEN MADE THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 

One spring day in 1889 a young Norwegian named 
Fridtjof Nansen came up Christiania Fjord and received 
the plaudits of admiring throngs for having accomplished 
the splendid feat of crossing the great Greenland ice cap 
on skis. Among the thousands who cheered the erect 
young ski-runner that bright sunny day was a boy named 
Roald Amundsen, and as the lad wandered with throbbing 
pulses amid the bunting and the cheering crowds there 
was born in his eager brain the thought that some day he, 
too, would become an explorer. And something seemed 
to whisper to him: "If you could make the Northwest 
Passage! " 

Four years later Nansen sailed northward in the Fram 
on the expedition which resulted in his getting farther 
north than man had ever done before. Amundsen felt 
that he must go with his hero, but his mother thought 
him too young and wisely bade him stay at home and go 
on with his lessons. In a year or so, however, his mother 
passed away, and in 1894 he made his first voyage to 
the Polar Sea on board a sealing vessel. In 1897 to 1899 
he took part, as mate, in the Belgian Antarctic Expedi- 
tion under Adrien de Gerlache. While on this voyage his 
boyhood dream took definite shape, and he determined to 
combine with the search for the Northwest Passage an 
object of still greater scientific importance, that of locat- 
ing the present situation of the Magnetic North Pole. 

226 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 227 

The tasks he had set himself required extended scien- 
tific training, so Amundsen studied terrestrial magnetism 
and other subjects in the German Marine Observatory 
and elsewhere. Like all truly great men he realized the 
importance of fitting himself for the task he proposed 
to undertake. 

Professor Nansen took keen interest in the young en- 
thusiast's plans and aided him to collect the necessary 
funds. By the spring of 1903 all was in readiness. A 
sturdy wooden ship named the Gjoa had been bought 
and fitted out with a thirteen-horsepower petroleum 
motor, and in her Amundsen had already made a trial 
voyage to the Polar Sea. Provisions and equipment had 
been carefully selected, and a crew of six had been en- 
gaged. All these men were hardy, resourceful fellows, 
able to turn their hands to almost everything. Even the 
cook, Adolf H. Lindstrom, could run the engine, steer 
the ship, or make zoological collections. 

On the night of the i6th of June, 1903, the little ship 
sailed quietly out of Christiania harbor on a venture that 
in four centuries had cost the lives of hundreds of brave 
men and had baffled scores of bold mariners from Ver- 
razano and Cartier to Franklin and Collinson. 

The supplies included scientific equipment, food for 
five years, petroleum for the engine, rifles and cartridges, 
and six Eskimo dogs which had been brought to Norway 
by the second Fram expedition. On the voyage across 
the Atlantic two of the dogs were seized by a disease that 
paralyzed them and they had to be killed. Ten more 
dogs, sledges, kayaks, and other equipment were obtained 



228 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

at Godhavn in Greenland. At Dalrymple Rock, north of 
Cape York, they took on board considerable further 
stores that had been deposited for them by Scotch whaling 
vessels. By this time the little Gjoa was so heavily laden 
that the deck was down almost to water-line, and cases 
were piled nearly as high as the main boom. 

Ice conditions in the Arctic were unusually favorable 
that year, and with comparatively little difficulty the ex- 
plorers crossed Lancaster Sound and on August 22 
anchored in Erebus Bay on the southeast coast of Beechey 
Island. It was at this place that the last Franklin expe- 
dition had spent their first winter^ and from it they had 
vanished from the sight of men. Here stood memorials to 
Franklin and to certain other explorers who had perished 
in that region. Here also were the graves of some of 
Franklin's men, marked by wooden crosses. Here a 
depot of provisions and supplies had been established in 
1852 for the use of one of the expeditions that searched 
for Franklin, or for Franklin himself if he happened to 
pass that way. 

Some parts of the building still remained, as well as 
some of the supplies. Amundsen took away the last of 
the coal and also a small quantity of sole leather. This 
last, though over half a century old and exposed for many 
years to wind and weather, they found to be preferable to 
their new " best American sole leather " — a discouraging 
evidence of degeneracy in present-day methods and 
workmanship. 

Some of the crew became so interested in this salvage 
work that they could hardly bear to leave anything be- 
hind. The smith found an ancient anvil over which he 
went into the wildest raptures. Nothing would do but 
that it must be taken along; <* the expedition would 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 229 

simply go to the bottom " without it. So on board it 
went, though no real use was ever found for it. Several 
other members took a great fancy to an old handcart and 
thought it ought to be taken, but there was no space for 
it, and when Amundsen facetiously asked if they would 
take it in their bunks, they reluctantly abandoned the 
idea. 

After making needed magnetic observations the expe- 
dition left this gloomy island of darkness and death and 
steered southwestward. For a time they had little diffi- 
culty with ice, but one day in Peel Sound they perceived 
far ahead in the mirror-like glitter of the calm sea what 
appeared to be a solid mass of ice extending from shore 
to shore. Amundsen feared, with a sinking heart, that 
he was about to reach the barrier that had turned all his 
predecessors back — " the border of solid unbroken ice." 
But the season had been unusually favorable, and luck 
was with them. Between the shore and the ice on either 
side they found clear and unimpeded channels, through 
one of which they passed easily and were soon again in 
open water. 

That night they reached a point so near the Magnetic 
Pole that their compass ceased to act, and they were re- 
duced to steering by the sun and stars like their Viking 
forefathers. As the sky was veiled a large part of the 
time in impenetrable fog, such navigation was very dan- 
gerous. 

Late next day the Gj'oa reached the De la Roquette 
Islands, where in 1875 Sir Allen Young in the Pandora 
had encountered an impenetrable barrier of ice. But 
again the lucky Norwegians found open water and sailed 
on to Bellot Strait, where for two years Captain Mc- 
Clintock had vainly waited for a chance to get through. 



230 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

At Bellot Strait the Gjoa again found an open channel 
and passed on into virgin water never before traversed 
by the keel of a ship. 

Thus far the expedition had met no insurmountable 
barrier, but it must not be inferred that all had been 
easy. The ordinary hazards of the Arctic sea had re- 
quired all their resourcefulness, and if all had not been 
men experienced in navigating ice-filled waters, they 
would doubtless long before have come to grief. 

On September ist, while they were still congratulating 
themselves over having entered the hitherto unnavi- 
gated portion of the Northwest Passage, they met with 
the most dangerous experience of the voyage. At six 
o'clock in the morning they ran aground upon a great 
submerged reef that branched out in all directions. They 
threw overboard twenty-five of their heaviest cases, each 
of which contained about four hundred pounds of pem- 
mican for dogs, and all that day labored to get off the 
reef, but in vain. That night a gale sprang up from the 
north. The vessel pitched violently upon the rocks, the 
wind howled through the rigging, and the spray dashed 
over the ship. As a last resort, Amundsen decided to 
set the sails and endeavor to get off the reef with their aid. 

" Then," says he, " we commenced a method of sailing 
not one of us is ever likely to forget should he attain 
the age of Methusaleh. The mighty press of sail and the 
high choppy sea, combined, had the effect of lifting the 
vessel up, and pitching her forward again among the 
rocks, so that we expected every moment to see her 
planks scattered on the sea. The false keel was 
splintered, and floated up. All we could do was to watch 
the course of events and calmly await the issue. As a 
matter of fact, I did feel calm as I stood in the rigging 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 231 

and followed the dance from one rock to another. I 
stood there with the bitterest self-reproach. If I had set 
a watch in the crow's nest, this would never have hap- 
pened, because he would have observed the reef a long 
way off and reported it. Was my carelessness to wreck 
my whole undertaking, which had begun so auspiciously? 
Should we, who had got so much further than any one 
before us — ^we who had so fortunately cleared parts of 
the passage universally regarded as the most difficult — 
should we now be compelled to stop and turn back crest- 
fallen? Turn back! that might yet be the question. If 
the vessel broke up, what then? I had to hold fast with 
all my strength whenever the vessel, after being lifted, 
pitched down on to the rocks, or I should have been flung 
into the sea. Supposing she were broken up. There was 
a very good prospect of it. The water on the reef got 
shallower, and I noted how the sea broke on the outer 
edge. It looked as if the raging north wind meant to 
carry us just to that bitter end. The sails were as taut 
as drumheads, the rigging trembled, and I expected it to 
go overboard every minute. We were steadily nearing 
the shallowest part of the reef, and sharper and sharper 
grew the lash of the spray over the vessel. 

" I thought it almost impossible the ship could hold 
together if she could get on the outer edge of the reef, 
which, in fact, was almost lying dry. There was still time 
to let down a boat and load it with the most indispensable 
necessaries. I stood up there, in the most terrible agony, 
struggling for a decision. On me rested every responsi- 
bility, and the moment came when I had to make my 
choice — to abandon the Gjoa, take to the boats, and let 
her be smashed up, or to dare the worst, and perchance 
go to meet death with all souls on board." 



232 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Amundsen slid down to the deck, and there Lund, the 
first mate, a very experienced man, suggested that they 
throw over the last of the deck cargo. They did so, and 
again the boat forged ahead over the rocks. Suddenly 
the vessel seemed to pull herself together for the final 
leap. " She was lifted up high and flung bodily on to the 
bare rocks, bump, bump — with terrific force. ... In 
my distress I sent up (I honestly confess it) an ardent 
prayer to the Almighty. Yet another thump, worse than 
ever, then one more, and we slid off." 

Well it was for that little crew, far up there in the icy 
North, that there was staunch timber and honest crafts- 
manship in their little ship! 

But now a new peril threatened. Lieutenant Hansen 
at the wheel cried out that there was something wrong 
with the rudder so that it would not steer. To one side 
lay a rocky island upon which they would soon drift to 
destruction, unless the rudder would work. Suddenly 
the little ship pitched high on a wave, the rudder settled 
back where it belonged, and Hansen shouted that all was 
right again. 

Later that day they anchored near some small islands. 
A frightful storm sprang up, and there was danger that 
the anchor chains would part and let the vessel drift to 
destruction. The engine was kept working full steam 
ahead to relieve the strain on the anchors. " Fortunately 
the chains held," says Amundsen, " but there we lay for 
five days and nights in terror, while the gale boxed the 
compass." 

When the storm finally ceased, the explorers sailed on, 
but it was clear to them that the autumn storms had 
begun in earnest and that further progress must be bought 
at the expense of the greatest danger. Furthermore, 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 233 

Amundsen wished to stop somewhere in this region in 
order to ascertain the location of the Magnetic North 
Pole. One day on the southeast coast of King William 
Land they saw a little harbor that would be almost ideal 
for winter quarters, so after sounding the entrance and 
reconnoitering the country the explorers sailed their vessel 
in. The basin was so small that the wind could not raise 
troublesome waves in it, while the entrance was so shallow 
and narrow that drifting ice — the terror of all Arctic 
explorers — could not enter and crush the ship. They 
called the place Gjohavn. 

As speedily as possible the explorers built a storehouse 
and a magnetic observation house and made other 
preparations to pass the winter. Two of the men slept 
in the observation house, and the rest on board the ship. 
Caribou were numerous, and when they began their 
migration southward, more than a hundred were killed 
for winter use. One day a number of Eskimos appeared, 
and thereafter some of them were almost constantly about 
the place. Some, in fact, came hundreds of miles to see 
the wonderful Kablunas. i.e., white men. The explorers 
made use of them as hunters and fishermen and to make 
clothing of skins. 

The explorers remained in this place for eighteen 
months, and every day of that time careful magnetic 
observations were taken. Exploring trips were made 
toward the Magnetic Pole and to Victoria Land. 

The time passed pleasantly, for there was plenty of 
food, and the explorers were like a happy family. There 
was no strict discipline; every man knew his duties and 
performed them without orders, and was always ready 
to give his comrades a helping hand. This was possible 
because Amundsen was a natural-born leader and also 



234 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

because he had been careful to take with him only good 
and tried men. 

The monotony of their life was broken by hunting and 
fishing trips, by visits to the Eskimo villages, and by 
good-natured tricks on each other. Lindstrom, the cook, 
was often the subject of these jokes, and he always was 
ready to laugh louder than any one when he saw how 
he had been sold. One day, for example, Lund and 
Hansen took a frozen ptarmigan, killed a couple of 
months before, and placed it in lifelike pose on a snow- 
drift about twenty-five yards from the ship. Then Lund 
descended to the fore-cabin, where the cook was eating 
his breakfast, and called out: "Lindstrom! Lindstrom! 
there's a ptarmigan yonder on the ice." The cook, an 
eager sportsman, snatched up his shotgun and hurried 
to the deck. " Where is it? " he demanded. " There, on 
the bow." The cook crept closer, and then taking careful 
aim fired. The ptarmigan rolled over in the snow. " Ha! 
Ha! I hit him that time," cried the elated cook and 
ran to fetch the game. He picked up the bird and felt 
of it. " Why, it is quite cold! " he exclaimed in astonish- 
ment. A shout burst out from the deck, and, looking up, 
the cook perceived the jeering faces of the jokers. 

Even Amundsen himself was not allowed to escape a 
certain amount of chaffing. Once, for instance, the cap- 
tain undertook to learn how to manage an Eskimo 
kayak, or skin boat. These little craft are very cranky 
and easily upset. " I chose," says the explorer, " a 
suitable little pond for practising on. At first I managed 
splendidly, but my comrades, who were building a cairn 
close by, made remarks that were an5^hing but flattering. 
I calmly turned round to tell them that I evidently had 
a natural talent for rowing a kayak. At that instant both 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 235 

the kayak and I turned over. The water was so shallow 
that I touched the bottom with my arms, but the kayak 
filled and I was wet to the skin. The others had to drag 
me ashore and my return to the tent to change my clothes 
was not a march of triumph." 

Another time a member of the expedition quietly passed 
the word among the Eskimos that the captain was anxious 
to buy seal bladders. These are used by the natives for 
holding reindeer fat. At once the women began bringing 
the blown up bladders to the ship for him. At first 
Amundsen bought the bladders, giving a few needles in 
exchange, but the supply continued to grow until the 
whole cabin was covered with bladders. Then he refused 
to buy any more. Meanwhile, the other explorers had a 
good deal of quiet fun at their leader's expense. 

Most of the Eskimos who came to the ship had never 
before seen a white man. Many of them still used bows 
and arrows in hunting caribou. To them a few needles 
and a knife or so were great wealth. They lived alto- 
gether upon the fish and game they could catch or kill, 
their clothing was of skins, and in summer they lived in 
skin tents and in winter in snow igloos, in the building of 
which they were very expert. 

They assumed a friendly demeanor toward the white 
strangers, but in view of the smallness of his party 
Amundsen thought it well to take precautions against any 
change of mind. With the idea of impressing them with 
the white man's power, the explorers secretly placed a 
powerful charge of guncotton under an empty snow hut 
and laid wires to it from the ship. Amundsen then as- 
sembled the Eskimos and spoke to them about the won- 
derful things the white man could do and warned them 
not to expose themselves to his terrible anger. For 



236 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

example, if they should play any tricks even out there 
by the snow huts, then the white men would simply sit 
quietly on board and then ..." With a terrific report 
the igloo blew up, and clouds of snow burst high in the 
air. This was all that was required." 

Throughout their long stay at Gjohavn the explorers 
had no serious trouble with the Eskimos. With some 
they became really good friends. Amundsen had a real 
interest in the natives and did all he could to help them. 
He found them superior in most ways to Eskimos who 
had come in closer contact with white men, and he says: 
"My sincerest wish for our friends the Nechilli Eskimos 
is that civilization may never reach them." 

These Eskimos had special customs which they ob- 
served, but they had no laws or magistrates. Each man 
did what seemed best in his own eyes, and stood in little 
fear of punishment for misdeeds. One tragic occurrence 
took place under the eyes of a member of the expedition. 
Among the Eskimos was a man named Umiktuallu, who 
lived for a time the first summer in a tent pitched close 
to the magnetic observation house. He owned an old 
muzzle-loading rifle, which he had traded from another 
Eskimo. One day he left the weapon loaded, and the 
children began playing with it. While the rifle was in the 
hands of a foster-son it went off and killed Umiktuallu's 
own eldest son, a boy of seven. The father, hearing the 
sound of the shot, rushed home, saw the dead boy, and 
in a frenzy stabbed the foster-son to death. Later he 
was filled with remorse for the deed, but the other 
Eskimos made ho effort to punish him. 

By the summer of 1905 the explorers had completed 
their scientific work and were ready to proceed. They 
had mapped the coasts round about and had fixed the 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 237 

position of the Magnetic Pole. They found it to be on 
the west coast of the peninsula of Boothia Felix, about 
where it was first located by James Ross half a century 

before. 

Before leaving Gjohavn they paid off the Eskimos who 
had aided them. In addition to knives and other articles, 
Amundsen made eleven heaps of wood and iron and gave 
them to the aborigines. One day he collected together 
all the Eskimo women " to enrich them with our empty 
tins. There were some hundreds of empty tins, and I 
had put them together in a large heap in the middle of 
the hill. Then I had the womenfolk arranged round the 
heap in a ring and told them that when I counted three, 
they might ' go for ' the heap and get all they could. 
The men arranged themselves behind their ladies: One! 
two! three! and in they rushed, using both hands as 
shovels ; they threw the tins out backwards between their 
legs — they were not hampered by skirts — and the men 
grabbed hold of the flying tins, and so each collected his 
lot. Laughter and noise, shrieks and shouts, tins flying, 
men rushing^ and so the heap was cleared." 

Early August 13, 1905, the anchor was raised, and the 
Gjoa once more began her perilous journey. Fortunately 
conditions were favorable. The preceding winter had 
been a mild one, and the sea was comparatively free from 
ice. In one place the passage between the ice and an 
island was so narrow as to be barely wide enough for the 
ship to pass through, but through she got and safely. 
Four days of careful navigation brought them to the west 
side of Cape Colborne, and they had now sailed " through 
the hitherto unsolved link in the Northwest Passage." 

Ten days later, off Baring Land, a vessel was sighted 
to westward. It was a memorable moment, for now 



238 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

they could truly claim that the Northwest Passage, 
Amundsen's dream smce boyhood had been accom- 
plished. Says he: 

" This very moment it was fulfilled. I had a peculiar 
sensation in my throat; I was somewhat overworked and 
tired, and I suppose it was weakness on my part, but I 
could find tears coming to my eyes. 'Vessel in sight! ' 
The words were magical. My home and those dear to 
me at once appeared to me as if stretching out their 
hands — 'Vessel in sight! ' I dressed myself in no time. 
When ready, I stopped a moment before Nansen's por- 
trait on the wall. It seemed as if the picture had come 
to life, as if he winked at me, nodding, 'Just what I 
thought, my boy! ' I nodded back, smiling and happy, 
and went on deck." 

The vessel proved to be an American whaler, and from 
her the explorers obtained potatoes and onions — great 
delicacies — and newspapers that were several months old 
but that were read avidly by Amundsen and his com- 
rades. 

At this time the explorers expected to be able to get 
out of the Arctic that season but at King Point, west 
of the mouth of the Mackenzie River, they were held up 
by ice and were forced to spend the winter there. 
Amundsen and a whaling captain from Herschel Island 
farther west made an overland trip to Eagle City on the 
Yukon. In March Gustav J. Wiik, the second engineer 
and assistant in magnetic observations, died, to the great 
sorrow of all his comrades. Amundsen himself was much 
affected, and in the preface to his book on the trip he 
says: 

" A loving thought will again and again travel back to 
the lonely grave looking out on the boundless ice-desert, 



THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 239 

and grateful memories will arise of him who laid down 
his young life on the field of action." 

At Herschel Island, which the Gjoa reached in July, 
another tragedy occurred. Among the Eskimo who fre- 
quented the region about Gjoahavn there was a lad of 
about seventeen named Manni. He was a foster-son of 
Umiktuallu, the Eskimo who had murdered another 
foster-son. Manni was eager to accompany the Kab- 
lunas to their own land, and, partly out of pity for him, 
they had agreed to take him. He was given a bath, his 
hair was well combed and was treated with plenty of 
insect-powder, and an outfit of clothes was provided for 
him. He soon became a great favorite with the ex- 
plorers, being willing to work or hunt, while his happy 
laughter " banished the most surly airs." He even 
learned to read and write a little, but his dream of seeing 
the land of the White Man was never realized. One day 
in the harbor at Herschel Island he went out duck hunt- 
ing. He stood up in his little boat the better to aim at 
a bevy of ducks and in some way fell out of it. Like all 
Eskimos he could not swim a stroke. He sank and was 
never seen again. 

On the last day of August the Gjoa arrived safely at 
Nome, on Bering Sea, and the crew were accorded an 
enthusiastic reception by the people. From thence the 
homeward trip was easy. 

Thus, after more than three centuries, the dream of a 
Northwest Passage was finally realized. By accomplish- 
ing it Amundsen won rank among the foremost of great 
explorers. But the intrepid Norwegian was not content 
with these laurels. In 1910 he sailed southward to the 
Antarctic in Nansen's old ship, the Fram. On Decem- 
ber 15, 191 1, he and four companions planted the Nor- 



240 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

wegian flag at the South Pole. He is now (1920) in the 
Arctic seas, seeking to reach the North Pole. 

Among modern explorers Amundsen takes equal rank 
with our own immortal Peary. He is a man of great 
humanity, strong yet gentle. In the recent Great War 
he returned to Germany all the decorations bestowed 
upon him by that country. He did not wish, he said, to 
be honored by a country guilty of such barbarities. 

All honor to the noble Norwegian! 



CHAPTER XV 

THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS 

For about three decades the old Hudson's Bay Company 
competed with the younger Northwest Company for the 
trade of the great Fur Land. In some places at certain 
times the rivalry was of a friendly character, and in- 
stances are not wanting where opposing traders helped 
each other, especially in times of danger. But each Com- 
pany wished to secure a monopoly of the trade, and it 
was inevitable that many clashes of one kind or another 
should take place far out in the wilderness, where neither 
the laws of man nor God were much respected. Intrigues 
with the Indians, sporadic instances of armed conflicts 
and even murder, seizure of goods and destruction of 
rival posts finally developed into open warfare — to blood- 
shed in the wilderness and to legal conflicts in Canada 
and England. 

Differing on most other thins;s, both Companies were 
agreed on this: neither wished to see the Fur Land set- 
tled, for settlers meant the disappearance of fur-bearing 
animals. The Companies even preferred that servants 
leaving their employment should return to their old 
homes in Canada or Great Britain rather than remain 
in the Northwest. Nevertheless, a considerable number 
of such persons did remain in the country, while the 
half-breed population grew apace, for it was the common 
custom of the country for the white men to mate, tempo- 
rarily or permanently, with squaws. 

241 



242 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

There was not, in fact, a single white woman in the 
whole of the Northwest until about 1803. She was an 
Orkney lass who followed her lover thither clad in men's 
clothes. For two or three years she managed to keep 
her secret from all except perhaps a few, but in Decem- 
ber, 1807, being ill, she revealed her true sex to Alex- 
ander Henry at his Pembina River post. The same day 
she was, in Henry's language, " safely delivered of a fine 
boy," the first all-white child, according to some accounts, 
ever born in the Northwest. The first white woman 
openly to come to the Northwest was the bride of 
J. Baptiste Lajimoniere, a voyageur in the employ of 
the Hudson's Bay post at Pembina. She created a great 
sensation among the Indians and even among the white 
men, many of whom had not seen a woman of their own 
race for years and years. According to some authorities 
a daughter was born to this French Canadian couple on 
January 6, 1807, If so, this child, which was called 
Reine, was the first white child born in the Northwest. 

The first systematic effort to colonize the Canadian 
Northwest was undertaken by a young Scottish noble- 
man, Thomas Douglas of Selkirk. Well educated and 
possessed of most things considered desirable in life, in- 
cluding a beautiful young wife, who was a daughter of 
one of the heaviest shareholders in the Hudson's Bay 
Company, Selkirk joined with many other admirable 
qualities a philanthropic desire to better the condition of 
others less fortunate than himself. At that time great 
poverty existed in the Highlands of his native country, 
and changes in farming methods had deprived thousands 
of honest, toiling people of the means of livelihood. 
Mackenzie's explorations had deeply interested Selkirk. 
It seemed to the young nobleman that in the vast region 




s 

O 

in. 



THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS 243 

of the American Northwest there lay rich lands where 
these poor people might grow prosperous or even rich. 

Owing to the competition of the Northwesters, the 
business of the Hudson's Bay Company had fallen to a 
low ebb and there had been only two dividends paid in 
ten years. Selkirk's wife's family already owned a large 
block of stock, and the young lord quietly bought enough 
more so that the two families combined controlled the 
Company. 

In 181 1 Lord Selkirk obtained from the Company a 
grant of land in the Red River region larger than the 
present Manitoba. Over this region he was to possess 
proprietary and governmental powers that made him 
practically a feudal lord. Over a hundred people, largely 
Highlanders, Orkneymen, and Irishmen, were sent out 
the first year by way of Hudson Bay; other shiploads 
sailed later. The colonists suffered great hardships on 
shipboard, on the long journey from the Bay to Red 
River, and even after their arrival in the colony. 

As fur traders the Northwesters naturally looked upon 
the colony with wintry eyes, for its success would strike 
at the very existence of their trade. Furthermore, Sel- 
kirk's agents attempted to drive the Northwesters out of 
the region, claiming exclusive rights. In 181 5 the North- 
westers forcibly broke up the colony and dispersed the 
colonists. But more colonists and Hudson Bay people 
came and under the leadership of Colin Robertson and 
Governor Semple got the upper hand. The North- 
westers rallied half-breeds and Indians to their aid and 
in June, 181 6, massacred Semple and a number of his 
followers at Seven Oaks. Selkirk soon after arrived in 
the region with reinforcements and regained control. 
For five years thereafter desultory warfare continued be- 



244 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

tween the two Companies, but the conflict was ruining 
them both and finally in 182 1 the rivals agreed to coalesce 
under the name of the older Company. 

The new Hudson's Bay Company exercised almost 
absolute sway over a region larger than Europe, extending 
from Labrador and the Arctic coast to California. Over 
part of this region the Company held its power by grant 
from the British government; elsewhere it had simply 
assumed control and urged in support of its pretensions 
certain vague clauses in the original charter. 

The union was a good thing for the stockholders and 
also for their Indian wards. The Company entered upon 
a new era of great prosperity, while it was able to adopt 
a better policy toward the Indians. Though jealous of 
its rights of trade, the Company's attitude toward the 
Indians was a paternal one. Naturally the Company 
desired the Indians to be healthy and in good condition, 
else they could not catch fur; it even made some efforts 
to educate them mentally and morally. While two com- 
panies were in the field the rival traders naturally sup- 
plied goods that were most pleasing to the Indians, for 
upon attracting the Indians depended the trader's success. 
It happened, of course, that in these circumstances many 
articles found their way to the Indian that were of no 
use to him or that were even positively harmful. Fire- 
water belonged in the latter class. But when one Com- 
pany obtained control a different policy was adopted. 
A certain quantity of beads and other frivolous gewgaws 
were, of course, allowed, but the main staples of trade 
were guns, ammunition, knives, and other articles that 
were of real utility and that would help the Indian in 
the struggle for a livelihood. The trade in liquor was, 
however, too strongly intrenched to be abolished at once. 



THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS 245 

The Indians demanded it, and often would not sell furs 
or pemmican unless the beloved poison was supplied 
them. Ultimately, however, the Company forbade the 
use of the article except in border regions where the 
competition of outside traders must be met. In time a 
Dominion law forbade under heavy penalties the sale or 
gift of intoxicants to an Indian. Had the old traffic 
been continued there would be few Indians left alive 
in Canada to-day. 

In the Oregon country the Company fought a long 
and losing battle against the tide of American settlers, 
and the end came when America's right to Oregon was 
recognized in the treaty of 1846. The gold rush of the 
'So's into British Columbia resulted in the Company's 
surrendering its monopoly of trade and its governmenta! 
rights in that region, though it still continued to trade 
there in competition with others. Elsewhere the Com- 
pany maintained its feudal sway for almost half a cen- 
tury after the two rival companies consolidated. 

That it held control so long was due to the slow set- 
tlement of the region. Much of it never could sustain 
a large population, and in Rupert's Land, including what 
are now the prairie provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, 
and Alberta, there was not, even as late as 1870, a single 
settlement, as distinguished from a fur post, except in the 
Red River country, where a few thousand whites and 
half-breeds hunted and trapped and occasionally devoted 
a little effort to cultivating the soil. The Hudson's Bay 
Company naturally did not want farmers in its domain, 
nor did any one have any conception of the real agri- 
cultural possibilities of the country. Furthermore, the 
Northwest was so remote that immigrants could not get 
into it except by tremendous efforts, nor was there any 



246 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

way of sending their agricultural products out after the 
people had arrived. Ultimately a small commerce sprang 
up by river and creaking carts with the frontier town 
of St. Paul hundreds of miles to the southward, but for 
a long time the Red River settlers formed a community 
almost as much apart to themselves as if they had resided 
on the moon. 

The Company's fur monopoly and other grievances 
ultimately provoked an armed uprising in Red River 
under the leadership of Louis Riel. This uprising and 
the confederation movement in Canada proper brought 
about a situation which resulted in October, 1869, in the 
Hudson's Bay Company relinquishing all charter and ex- 
clusive rights in its domain. In return the Dominion 
government paid the Company three hundred thousand 
pounds, allowed it to retain the land where its forts stood, 
and granted it one-twentieth of the arable land in its 
territory, and these land concessions ultimately proved 
to be of immense value. The Company continued to 
trade as of old but without any exclusive rights. 

Even then the land filled slowly. But a few far-sighted 
and courageous men like Donald Smith (later Lord 
Strathcona) and Alexander Mackenzie (later Lord 
Mount Royal) perceived the real possibilities of the 
Northwest and, despite tremendous obstacles, built 
the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railroad, finished 
in 1886. It has been said that "Egypt is the gift of 
the Nile," and it might with almost equal truth be said 
that the Canadian Northwest is the gift of this railroad, 
for it made a hitherto remote region easily accessible 
to the rest of the world. 

Years before a governor of the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany had testified before a committeee of the British 



THE COMING OF THE SETTLERS 247 

House of Commons that agriculture could not be carried 
on successfully in Rupert's Land. He believed what he 
said, and his view was generally accepted even in Canada. 
But even before the building of the railroad men knew 
that the prairie country would grow wheat as good as any 
in the world; that oats, flax, barley, potatoes, and many 
other crops would thrive there in great profusion. 

After the building of the railroad the land filled rap- 
idly. Settlers came from eastern Canada, the British 
Isles, from all over the world, even from the United 
States, and these last were the best of all, for they knew 
what was needed to succeed and they brought in more 
money than did the others. Year after year more 
" claims " were taken up, more " sod huts " were built, 
more of the land was broken for crops. The tide of 
settlement swept westward from Manitoba over the roll- 
ing plains until the foothills of the Rockies and even 
remote Peace River were reached by the homesteaders. 
Meanwhile in British Columbia gold, copper, lumber, 
salmon, and other natural products brought an influx 
of settlers to that mountainous land. 

As in most new countries enthusiasm sometimes ran 
wild. Farming was attempted in arid places where 
Nature never intended that crops should be grown with- 
out irrigation, cities were laid out and lots sold far be- 
yond the needs of this generation; boom times were fol- 
lowed by hard times; optimism changed to pessimism; 
ruin came to thousands who believed themselves rich. 
Underneath all, however, lay a substratum of real accom- 
plishment; and the net result is to-day that the Prairie 
Provinces and British Columbia are permanently settled, 
while the future is full of hope. 

And the true mettle of these people of " the Last Best 



248 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

West " was proved by the valor of their sons in the 
Great War! 

After all, however, only the southern fringe of the 
land is really occupied. In this fringe are railroads, and 
mines, and farms, and great cities like Vancouver and 
Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg. But north 
of the fringe, except for a few thousand settlers on the 
plains of the lower Peace, lies the yet untenanted Domain 
of the North, still almost primeval, a region two-thirds 
as big as the United States. Here are a few thousand 
trappers and traders of white and mixed blood; here 
dwell, almost as of old, the descendants of the aborigines 
who knew Radisson and Hearne and Mackenzie. Here, 
as of old, the great Company (with some lesser rivals) 
still holds sway. " Its canoe brigades still bring in furs 
to the far fur posts. Its mid-winter dog trains still set 
the bells tinkling over the lonely wastes of Northern 
snows and it still sells as much fur at its great annual 
sales as in its palmiest days." 



CHAPTER XVI 

THE BROTHERHOOD OF TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 
OF TO-DAY 

One autumn near the McLeod River in western Alberta 
I happened upon a slim, forlorn-looking boy, probably 
about eighteen years old, who had come all the way from 
western Pennsylvania, where he had done a little " barn- 
yard trapping," in order to have a go at big game and 
make a fortune out of the marten, fisher, l3mx, otter, and 
beaver he could catch. 

He had pitched his little tent in a grove of jack-pines 
beside the right of way of the unfinished transcontinental 
railroad and was waiting for his partner, who was riding 
their only cayuse across country from Edmonton, a 
hundred and thirty miles eastward. While waiting he 
had set some traps and had caught — a weasel! He had 
expected to find himself in a good trapping country at 
this point and was much discouraged to learn that he 
still had a long and toilsome journey to make before he 
would reach a region where a living could be made catch- 
ing fur. He spoke of grizzlies with bated breath and 
wanted my opinion as to whether his powerful .35 caliber 
Winchester, 1895 model, was big enough for these 
animals. 

" Yes, or for an elephant," I assured him, knowing that 
in that country the grizzly was almost as extinct as the 
dodo. " The main trouble will be to find the grizzly." 

I have often wondered since what became of the little 

249 



250 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

chap, whether he did manage to make a go of it, and 
whether he ever got his bear. He may have been gritty 
enough to stick, or he may have taken an early train 
back for the Pennsylvania farm, but, at any rate, his 
case illustrates one source from which the picturesque 
brotherhood of trappers and prospectors is fed. I class 
the two together, for in the remote Northwest, where they 
still flourish, practically every trapper at some time in 
his career tries his hand at locating the hiding place of 
the root of all evil, and practically every prospector is 
repeatedly driven to seeking pelts in order to make a 
grubstake for another search for a rich bar. 

At the other end of the scale, so far as age is concerned, 
stands an old Dane, who has sought fortune and failed 
to find it in half the diggings of the far Northwest and 
has now settled down to do a little trading and trapping 
at the point where the mighty Peace River begins to 
burst its way through the black wall of the Rockies. His 
one great regret is that he did not go to the Klondike 
with a certain friend in '98. 

" We had two hundred dollars apiece," he relates 
gloomily. " I heard the Mounted Police at Chilkoot 
Pass were turning back everybody who did not have 
five hundred, so I changed my mind and said I wouldn't 
go. He swore that the devil himself couldn't turn him 
back. He went to the Klondike and came back with a 
hundred thousand dollars. I went to Parsnip River and 
came back with the rheumatism." 

Some trappers and prospectors are misfits anywhere 
except on the border; a few are fugitives from justice. 
One trapper of the last mentioned class committed rob- 
bery and murder in lower British Columbia and sought 
refuge in the upper Finlay country, where for several 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 251 

years he managed to operate uncaptured, obtaining his 
supplies by stealth. What became of him ultimately is 
not known. He may have crossed the border into 
Alaska, or he may have met death alone in the wintry 
solitudes. 

But most of the brotherhood of trappers and pros- 
pectors are attracted by the wild, free life, with its op- 
portunities for living next to Nature and indulging 
propensities for hunting and fishing. The trapper calls 
no man master, and I doubt not that this fact alone has 
much to do with his willingness to bear the hardships 
inseparable from the life. 

Of hardships there are plenty. Consider, for example, 
the life of a certain trapper I know, namely " Shorty " 
Webber, a little Dutchman, with a broad body and a 
broader smile. Shorty's line at the time of which 
I speak lay far up Finlay River in the neighborhood of 
Deserter's Canyon, To reach this remote mountain 
region in the first place he took the route from Prince 
George by way of Giscome Portage, Crooked River, Pack 
River, Parsnip River, and Finlay River. The first part 
of his lonely journey was not especially difficult, for it 
was downstream work, but then he had to pole his heavy 
dugout canoe, containing all his outfit, up the swift and 
turbulent Finlay, and many were the rapids up which 
he simply had to wade and " walk " his craft. 

Arrived at last at his trapping ground, he must build 
his cabin and chink it carefully with moss or mud to 
keep out the wind. He must then build, high up on 
the stumps of trees, a water-tight cache, in which to put 
his supplies, safe from bears, wolverines, mice, and 
packrats. He must cut and drag to his door a supply of 
firewood. 



252 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Next he sets out to select his trap line, cutting a 
narrow trail through the thick bush and blazing trees 
every few rods. Along the line he builds two other 
cabins, smaller and cruder than the first. He also selects 
the best places to set his traps, makes a few deadfalls, 
and is constantly on the alert for a chance to kill a 
moose, caribou, or bear in order to assure a stock of 
meat for himself and for baiting his traps. Even in the 
remote wilderness this task of killing sufficient meat is 
by no means the simple matter that it sounds, and it is 
unsafe for a trapper to rely upon beinig able to add largely 
to his larder in this way. 

Shorty has come into the country in August, and, by 
the time the frosts have brought down the leaves from 
birches and balsam poplars and the fur is beginning to 
be prime, he is ready. He sets and baits his traps and 
deadfalls. In order to keep the traps from being cov- 
ered by the snow he sets many on the tops of stumps of 
trees he has cut down, or else in notches chopped in the 
standing trunks. As the snow grows deeper, he is often 
obliged to cut higher notches, and I have seen such 
notches twenty or thirty feet high. 

Early in the fall Shorty's task of making the round 
of his traps is comparatively easy — little more than 
tramping four days over the sixty-mile trail, with a small 
pack on his back. But as time passes the weather grows 
colder and the snow deeper; the temperature falls far 
below zero, and the snow gets so deep that he cannot 
travel except on snowshoes. There come days when the 
temperature is forty, fifty, even sixty below, when wild 
winds have filled the trail with soft and fleecy snow and 
heaped it in great drifts, when every foot of the way 
must be broken anew. It is such times as this that test 




Uh 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 253 

the mettle of a trapper. The lazy ones, those who fear 
cold and love the ease and warmth of the cabin, may 
remain within for weeks, but our man is built of sterner 
stuff. To venture out in the very worst of weather would, 
of course, be little short of suicidal, nor would it be 
worth while, for " fur " " runs " but little at such a 
time. But there comes a time when the wind has fallen, 
when the air is warmer, when marten and fisher and other 
furred animals venture forth, and he sets out once more 
to make the round. 

The first few traps he finds untouched, and three of 
them are completely hidden under the snow. He 
remedies the defect and pushes on; Here is a trap 
where a hungry red squirrel has tried to take the bait 
and has been caught by a forepaw. He is dead, frozen 
as stiff and hard as a stick of wood. The trapper curses 
the unlucky thief, resets the trap, and puts the squirrel 
in his pack for use as bait farther on. Ha, yonder is 
luck, perhaps! The trap in the notch in a big jack- 
pine on the hillside ahead is not there; the snow looks 
trampled down. But, pshaw, there is blood scattered 
over the snow, and of a fine marten nothing remains but 
some bits of fur and a foot sticking fast in the trap. 
Some big tracks, with large claw marks, tell the story. 
A wretched wolverine has happened that way and has 
made a meal off thirty dollars worth of fur. Worst of 
all, the tracks lead along the blazed trail toward other 
traps. 

With tense muscles and tongue muttering impreca- 
tions, Shorty reshoulders his pack and trudges along the 
trail after the hated beast. It is as he feared, the next 
trap has been cunningly sprung and the bait taken. It 
is so with the next and the next. For several miles it is 



254 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

the same story, except that a few of the traps to the 
leeward of the trail have escaped the wolverine's nose. 
Finally there is another trap in which a marten has been 
caught, and again only some bits of fur and splashes 
of blood remain. Here, however, the wolverine, being 
full of meat, turns aside. Relieved but puffing out curses 
like a locomotive. Shorty passes on, vowing that some 
day he will have revenge. 

Miles farther on, in a deep gulch among the moun- 
tains, he comes once more to a trap where the snow 
has been disturbed. As he draws nearer, there is a 
snarl, and an animal with a demoniacal scowl on its 
tooth-filled face backs away as far as the chain of the 
trap will permit. The trapper laughs; the scowl scares 
him not in the least. No use wasting a cartridge here, 
for of all animals the lynx is one of the most cowardly. 
A stout club ends the beast's career, and soon his skin 
is off and in the pack, along with much of the meat; for 
lynx meat, be it said, is not only good for bait and dog 
food but is considered toothsome by trappers as well. 

Late in the afternoon, weary with breaking trail, the 
trapper, still far from his next cabin, selects a sheltered 
spot in thick spruce timber and proceeds to camp. First 
he clears away the snow on a spot as large as a small 
room and builds a fire near one end. Facing the fire, 
his little open-faced tent is next set un, after which he 
cuts spruce boughs for a bed and arranges his blankets. 
He has already hung two small pots full of snow over 
the fire to melt, but, though he is hungry, he has not 
time to cook supper yet. While there is still light he 
must cut a pile of logs to keep the fire going through 
the night, and only when this task is done does he bake 
a bannock in the frying pan, fry the big blue grouse he 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 255 

shot on the way, and brew his tea. After a pipe of 
tobacco, ignoring the beauties of a magnificent aurora — 
" the dance of the spirits," as the Crees call it — he rolls 
himself in his blankets and falls asleep. In a couple of 
hours the fire dies down, and the bitter cold strikes in 
through his thin covering; half-frozen, he must get up 
and pile on more logs. Thus passes the long night. 

Five days later, tired, hungry, with soot blackened 
face and one foot touched with frost, he reaches his 
home cabin and indulges in a grand feed of beans, 
bannock, and lynx mulligan. It has taken him two days 
longer than usual to make the round, for the snow has 
been very trying, especially so for one with such short 
legs. He has brought with him the skin of the lynx 
and the unskinned carcasses of two martens. The 
weather has not been favorable for a big catch, for even 
fur-bearing animals do not like to stir abroad much 
during intense cold, and besides the wolverine has 
created havoc along the line. On some rounds, particu- 
larly in November and March, when fur is running, he 
will do better; on others not so well. 

Two or three times in the winter he will be visited by 
bands of hungry Siwash, who, if he will permit, will beg 
everything he has and eat him out of cache and cabin. At 
Christmas he probably makes the long trip to the little 
log trading post known as Fort Grahame, down the 
Finlay, and, with three or four other white trappers and 
the Indian population of the region, spends a week of 
wild social relaxation. At the end of that time he re- 
turns to his solitary cabin, taking a few supplies, prob- 
ably tobacco and tea, bought at ruinous prices of the 
great Company. 

In the spring when the ice breaks up and the snow 



256 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

melts, he has a go at trapping bears and beaver, and, 
when fur is no longer prime, he pulls his traps, stows 
his most precious belongings in his cache, leaves his 
cabin door unlocked, and floats down the river to 
market his catch. For months he has been looking for- 
ward to the trip, and when, after three weeks of fighting 
wild waters, he reaches Prince George on the Fraser, he 
proceeds to have what he considers " a good time." 

In cases where two trappers go into partnership, they 
lay out a much longer trap line and have a central cabin 
at which they meet on certain appointed days. Thus 
they are able to enjoy each other's society and avoid the 
terrific strain of months of loneliness, while, in case one 
becomes ill or meets with an accident, he has some one 
to take care of him. 

The plan has one great disadvantage in that two men 
who enter into this sort of partnership often find it im- 
possible to keep on good terms through the long and 
gloomy winter season. They will go out in the fall the 
best of friends, but there comes a time when the liver 
of one or both is out of order and tempers flare up. A 
fight not infrequently follows, sometimes a manly con- 
test, fist and skill; sometimes with knives, guns, or any 
weapon that happens to be handy. More than one 
bloody tragedy has taken place far away in the depths 
of the forest with no other witnesses than the white 
and silent mountains. 

The hate that two human beings can develop when 
alone under such circumstances passes belief. In the 
spring, if both are alive, they go out, rifles in hand, each 
narrowly watching the other for any signs of murderous 
intent. Arrived outside, a change of scene and the 
society of other men sometimes causes the bitterness to 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 257 

evaporate when the sun grows warm; by fall the two 
may be such fast friends again that they renew the part- 
nership and return to the bush — perhaps to reenact a 
similar drama of quarreling and hatred. 

Not all such quarrels have so tame an ending. On 
my last trip to Peace River I heard of two tragedies 
resulting from controversies between trapping partners. 
The summer before there had come to Hudson's Hope 
a Mexican and an American, both desperate men who 
had taken part in the revolutions that made the names 
of Madero, Huerta, Villa, and Carranza known through- 
out the world. The two men located a trap line on 
the eastern slope of the Rockies in the remote region 
from which flow tributaries of the Liard and Peace 
rivers. Those who knew them say that they were con- 
stantly quarreling with each other, and in the spring 
some difference of opinion brought affairs to a crisis. 
Both drew their revolvers, and continued firing until 
both were dead or mortally wounded. When the tragedy 
was discovered by other trappers, the bodies were left 
lying where they fell until a magistrate from St. Johns 
could view them. My old friend Jim Beattie, who keeps 
the portage at Hudson's Hope, furnished horses to take 
the magistrate to the scene of the murder and acted as 
guide and packer. The round trip took sixteen or seven- 
teen days. 

The same winter another equally tragic occurrence took 
place much nearer Hudson's Hope. Two trappers named 
Holtmeier and Christensen had a cabin four miles above 
the head of the great canyon. One day another trapper 
happened to stop at the cabin and on looking inside saw 
the frozen body of Holtmeier lying in a pool of blood 
on the floor. Examination of the body disclosed over a 



258 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

dozen bullet wounds; in fact, it was shot almost to 
pieces. Christensen had disappeared and has never been 
heard from since. 

Various theories have been propounded to account for 
the murder. Some think that Christensen went insane 
and murdered his partner, then rambled off into the 
woods. Others believe that the two probably had a fight 
in which Christensen, the smaller man, was worsted; 
that he then crawled up into his bunk, which was raised 
several feet above the floor, and that from this position 
he shot Holtmeier down. In support of this theory they 
point to the fact that some of the shots ranged down- 
ward. Whatever the cause of the murder it is clear that 
Christensen was either insane or mad with anger, for 
he continued to shoot until the magazine of his gun was 
empty. 

The snow was deep and the temperature far below zero 
when the murder took place. Investigation seemed to 
show that Christensen did not go down Peace River, and 
to reach the habitations of men in any other direction 
he would have had to travel hundreds of miles through 
mountain fastnesses. The generally accepted view is that 
the murderer perished of cold or hunger. 

The trapper who works alone avoids all such unpleas- 
antness as this, but he has to pass many months with no 
other companions than his dogs, and in case he meets with 
accident, he has no helping hand to aid him. 

On the upper Brazeau River in the foothills of the 
Albertan Rockies I once saw a crude wooden tepee con- 
nected with which was a story of this sort. In the winter 
of 1907-08 a trapper from the States had a cabin near 
this spot, and in it were stored all of his supplies. One 
January day he returned from a round of his traps and 




Photograph by the Author 



The wooden tepee whose very crudeness spoke eloquently 
of the direness of his need " 




Pliotograph by the Author 



Some of the Brotherhood of Trappers and Prospectors — one 
of them reshaping a dugout canoe 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 259 

found the cabin burned down. By this misfortune he 
lost all his food except a little flour and all his bedding 
except one blanket. The temperature was far below 
zero, and the wooden tepee — whose very crudity spoke 
eloquently of the direness of his need — was his attempted 
solution of the problem of survival. But the wind blew 
cold through the open cleft, and sleep was a nightmare. 
His flour ran low, and game seemed to have deserted 
the region. One day he wrote on a marten stretcher the 
story of the disaster and stated that he intended to set 
out for Edmonton, distant one hundred and fifty miles in 
a direct line and much farther as he would have to go. 
Of what befell him on that lonely winter journey there 
are no tidings, but in some wild glen in that illimitable 
waste of hills his bones lie scattered. 

A somewhat similar misfortune happened to my old 
friend Adolf Anderson — seaman, smuggler, seal poacher, 
gambler, Klondiker, prospector, trapper, and all-round 
good fellow — whose life story I have told elsewhere. 
With another Swede named Nels Hansen he was trap- 
ping on the headwaters of the Athabasca, and on the 
return from one of their rounds they found their cabin 
burned down in much the same fashion. They were five 
full days from any human habitation, and they had but 
four pounds of moose meat, though they had some dogs 
on which they could have fed as a last resort. They 
also had blankets. 

It was nearly dark, so they built a lean-to of spruce 
boughs, intending to make an early start next morning 
for the nearest settlement. 

" In the night," said Anderson, in telling me the story, 
" I woke up and heard Hansen whispering to himself, 
for he was not much more than a kid. ' Aw, don't worry/ 



26o TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

I say to him, ' we'll get out of this all right.' But down 
deep I was not so sure." 

Owing to a blizzard they made little progress. By 
the third day their moose meat was eaten, and they 
were terrifically hungry. 

" Hansen could talk of nothing but the fine feeds he 
had had," Anderson relates. " He would tell of the big 
beefsteaks, the good cabbage and potatoes, and the yellow 
cheese he had et. At last I say: ' Shut up, or I will 
crack you over the head and eat you! ' 

" That afternoon we reached a small lake and cut a 
hole through the ice to try fishing. It was a hard job, 
for the ice was over four feet through, but at last we 
reached the water. I had one hook and a little bit of 
moose meat I had saved. While we had been cutting 
the hole the dogs sat round watching. When I dropped 
the hook in the water, they all stood up and their tails 
began to wag this way " — waving his hand from side to 
side — "as if they were saying: 'Here is where we get 
a feed!' Poor fellows, they were mistaken, for we 
caught only one fish. After that a big bull trout broke 
the line, and we had no more hooks. 

" The next day we were so hungry and weak we could 
hardly break trail. That evening we got near a place 
in the muskeg where the fall before a weak old pack- 
horse had mired down and could not get out and was 
shot. I say: ' It will do to feed the dogs.' But when 
we got there, we found the wolves had et all but the legs, 
which were frozen in the mud. We built a big fire over 
the spot and thawed out the mud so we could pull out 
the legs. I gave some of the meat to the dogs, but I 
noticed that the roasted meat smelled pretty well, so by 
and by I take a bite. It tasted damned good! 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 261 

" Hansen was hungry, but no horse for him. He would 
starve first, he say. I filled up till my belly stuck out, 
then I went to sleep. About midnight I hear the fire 
cracking big. I take a peep out. I see something flash 
in the light. It look like a horseshoe moving. Nels was 
behind that horseshoe. Next morning his belly stuck 
out as much as mine." 

Fortified thus, the two managed three days later to 
reach another trapper's cabin on the McLeod River and 
got plenty of more conventional food. 

Another adventure which Anderson and a trapping 
partner named Lebhers had on the Thompson River in 
British Columbia did not turn out so well. They had 
pulled their traps in the spring and were going down 
the river in an old dugout when the dugout filled in a 
swift rapid, and they were thrown out. Anderson was 
drawn into a log jam and was nearly drowned. Lebhers 
managed to cling to the dugout, and Anderson thought 
he would be safe, but when the Swede got ashore he could 
not find his partner, though he looked for him for two 
days. Months later a Canadian Northern survey outfit 
found Lebher's body in a great jam pile many miles 
down the river. Anderson and a policeman went in 
search of it and buried it under a tall spruce on the river 
bank. As they had no priest along, Anderson fired a 
salute of five shots over the grave. 

Once on a trip down Peace River, in that section 
where the river bursts through the mighty wall of the 
Rockies, we landed one day to cook lunch on a beach 
above which there is a flat on which there stands a rude 
cabin roofed with strips of birchbark. Within the cabin, 
in the dirt floor, there is a depression. The cabin was 
built in 1898 by three prospectors as a shelter in which 



262 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

to spend the winter. Toward spring two died of scurvy, 
and the third was too weak to dig in the frozen earth 
outside, so he buried his comrades in the cabin. Later 
he managed to make his way back to civilization but died 
in the hospital at Edmonton. He is said to have told 
in his last hours of an immensely rich bar, yielding a 
hundred and twenty-five dollars to the pan, and of a 
great hoard of buried gold, but if any one has ever suc- 
ceeded in finding the treasure, he has not made the fact 
known to the world. 

The cabin still stands there. More than once persons 
unacquainted with its history have slept in it. But no 
one who knows what the earth beneath its roof holds 
has ever been known to pass the night there, no matter 
how fiercely the blizzard may roar. 

A few trappers and prospectors find their lives so 
lonely that they mate with the dusky klooches of the 
country. In the old days such alliances were frequently 
entered into without formal matrimonial accompaniments, 
but Canadian law is now very strict in such matters and 
is made in the interest of the aborigines. The squaws 
know their rights and often demand formal marriage 
ceremonies before they will give themselves to their 
enamored swains. Perhaps for this reason there is com- 
paratively little race intermixture in the upper Peace 
country. Klooches do not bear a good reputation as 
wives, either morally or otherwise; they are very extrava- 
gant with their husband's money and wasteful with food, 
nor are they good cooks. 

East of the mountains the trapper's great prize is the 
fox, particularly the black and the silver, which are 
merely color variations of the ordinary red fox of that 
country and are liable to be caught almost anywhere. In 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 263 

the mountains the most sought animal is the marten, and 
the best range for these fur bearers is in old, thick forest, 
at high altitudes. Country that has been burned over 
and then reforested is not likely to contain many marten. 
In traveling through a new region with a trapper one 
will now and then have his attention called to a tract as 
certain to be " good marten country." 

Some trap lines are very long, seventy, eighty, ninety, 
or even a hundred miles, but there are short ones also. 
At The Gate on Peace River, some miles below Hudson's 
Hope, there lives a certain Dr. Greene who runs a line 
on which all the traps are set on bare hillsides in sight 
of his cabin. When he deems it desirable to make the 
round of his line, he merely takes a pair of powerful field 
glasses and through them ascertains whether any of the 
traps have been sprung. If there is an animal in one 
of them, he has, of course, to walk thither and take it 
out; otherwise, he is able to return in a few minutes to 
the cheerful comfort of his fire. He evidently was born 
lucky, for one winter he caught a silver fox and sold it 
for several hundred dollars. 

A trapper's financial success depends in large measure 
on his skill in marketing his catch. Those who are shrewd 
enough to bring their fur to one of the larger markets, 
such as Edmonton, are likely, if they keep sober long 
enough, to obtain fair prices. Those who sell their catch 
to the Hudson's Bay posts or to free traders in the region 
where the catch was made most generally must be content 
with small returns. The Indian trappers, in particular, 
suffer in this respect, though not so much so as when 
Hudson's Bay had a monopoly of the fur business. One 
hears stories of trappers who make twelve or fifteen hun- 
dred or even two thousand dollars a year, but most do 



264 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

well if they realize four, six, or seven hundred from 
their catch. 

The successful prospector may be waylaid and mur- 
dered and his precious dust stolen, but, unlike the 
trapper, he is at least not troubled by fluctuating prices. 
In peace or war^ in bad times or flush times, gold is in- 
variably worth the same sum an ounce, namely $20.67, 
not a mill more and not a mill less, for gold is the standard 
of value. The amount of goods that a trapper can buy 
with an ounce of dust will vary, but not the price of the 
dust itself. 

Trapping, however, is a much more certain profession 
than prospecting. If the total number of dollars made 
by hopeful prospectors seeking gold in the Northwest 
were to be divided by the number of days they spent 
seeking it, the daily wage would average no more than 
a few cents. Now and then a lucky man finds a ledge 
of quartz or a seam of coal that he can sell for a large 
sum, or a rich bar from which he can pan out big 
returns, but frequently a whole summer's labor produces 
little or nothing. 

Nevertheless, a prospector never ceases to hope that 
he will stumble upon a rich prize such as has fallen to 
other men in the past, and he continues to play the 
game with all the abandon of a devotee of roulette or a 
lottery. Such a man may spend his last cent on the 
gold trail, but, just as soon as he can, by trapping or 
otherwise, make a new grubstake, he is off again into the 
mountains after the golden will 0' the wisp. 

Of the many stories of this sort of persistence I think 
the most tragic I ever heard was that of an old pros- 
pector in Colorado. He conceived the idea that by driv- 
ing a shaft into the side of a certain mountain he could 




I'luitOiivaph hy the Author 

Trappers and a dugout canoe 




Pliotograph by the Author 

A prospector " panning " for gold 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 265 

strike a rich lode from which a celebrated mine was 
taking millions. For years he toiled at the task. When 
his money would give out, he would work at something 
else until he had accumulated a little stake and could 
once more return to the labor that was to make him rich. 
But he grew old and feeble; the shaft progressed less 
rapidly than his bodily infirmities. One day the old man 
wrapped himself in his blanket with a stick of dynamite 
and touched off the fuse. 

The richest strike ever made on Peace River head- 
waters was found in a bar on the west bank of Finlay 
River, a few miles above the mouth. The lucky finder 
was a giant Cornishman named Pete Toy, and he and 
others are reputed to have taken out seventy thousand 
dollars' worth of dust. Long after making his great 
clean-up Toy remained a celebrated character in the 
region. He built a cabin farther up the Finlay, and 
tradition says that he had two klooches to pack his goods 
for him. Ultimately he was drowned in the Black 
Canyon of the Omineca, and, of course, there is a story 
that he left a vast hoard of dust buried in some secret 
spot. 

His bar still exercises a fascination upon those who have 
felt the lure of gold. Many have taken a whirl at it, 
and they never fail to wash out a little gold. Shortly 
before I saw it in 191 6 some prospector had happened 
that way and had squared the stump of a small poplar 
and set down in pencil that he meant to file a claim 
there. He must have been a man with a sense of humor, 
for he called the claim the " Perhaps Placer." 

There are many bars in that region that could doubt- 
less be worked with profit with steam dredges, if the 
cost of transportation from the railway, over two hun- 



266 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

dred miles away, did not forbid. Years ago the discov- 
erer of the diggings on Germansen Creek acquired the 
name of " Old Hog'em " because he charged forty-five 
dollars for a small sack of flour ground at Williams Lake 
from frozen wheat. The Hudson's Bay Company still 
pays ten cents a pound to the freighter who brings in its 
goods, and miners find the costs practically prohibitive. 

A dozen miles below Toy's Bar stands Mount Selwyn, 
an immense mountain containing hundreds of millions 
of tons of gold quartz that is said to assay from four to 
eighteen dollars to the ton. Until a railroad is built 
nothing can be done to develop this immense treasure 
hoard, for quartz is a matter of mining on a large scale^ — 
of heavy and costly machinery and large numbers of 
workmen. It lacks the romantic interest that attaches to 
" poor man's gold," that is, " pay dirt " on a river bar. 

When gold is in question, a large section of humanity 
seem to go stark, staring crazy, and in consequence one 
hears of innumerable foolish ventures and hoaxes. None 
that I have ever heard surpasses what old man Peterson 
at Finlay Forks relates of a rush to Parsnip River in 
'98. He told some of us the full story one night as we 
sat in his cabin at the Forks. 

" I was on my way up Fraser River to Giscome Por- 
tage," said he reminiscently as he stuck a fresh stick of 
balsam poplar into his little stove. " At Soda Creek I 
caught up with one of the queerest outfits I had ever run 
into. They were headed by a fine-looking, gray-haired 
old gentleman called Colonel Parker. Parker had been 
in the country before and had staked a lot of placer 
claims along the gravel bars of the lower Parsnip. He 
had then gone back to the States and had advertised all 
over the country what a sure thing he had and how badly 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 267 

he wanted to take some partners into the business and 
make them rich. Well, he managed to gather in a bunch 
of twenty-eight from various places, but mostly from 
Philadelphia, New York City, and Peoria. I remember 
two from Peoria very well. One had resigned as chief 
of poHce because he felt sure he could dig a lot of gold 
in Cariboo, and his brother had sold a grocery store 
and come along. Another man owned a big shoe store 
in Philadelphia, and all of the men had money. Colonel 
Parker wouldn't have bothered with them if they hadn't. 

"They had it all figured out that they couldn't fail 
to go home millionaires. The Colonel had told them that 
a cubic foot of gravel would pan out twenty dollars in 
gold, and there were so many thousand cubic feet in 
the top layer of each claim. The next layer was richer 
still — twenty-five dollars to the cubic foot. The third 
was still richer — and so on. A few had even taken the 
trouble to calculate down for a mile, but I forget exactly 
how much gold they were going to have when they got 
down that far. 

" The terms on which they had bought their share of 
the claims — of course, the Colonel retained a share in 
each — were half down in cash and the other half deposited 
in a Philadelphia bank to be subject to the Colonel's 
order not earlier than a certain day in July. Altogether 
the claims sold came to a total of seventy-eight thousand 
dollars. 

" Most of the party had never paddled a canoe before, 
and good canoe-men were scarce. The Colonel had 
rounded up two Siwash to help, and he persuaded me to 
go along. He was a very persuasive man was that 
Colonel. It wasn't a bad trip. There was grub enough 
for three times as many people, plenty of tobacco, plenty 



268 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

of Scotch whiskey. When any of us felt bad we took 
a drink of Scotch. Most of us felt bad pretty often. 
Then there were some good singers and a cornet player. 
He played night and day. 

" When we got to Giscome Rapids, one of the canoes 
ran onto a rock and upset. One of the men went down. 
He just threw up his hands and sank, and we saw him 
no more. 

" That scared most of the bunch terribly. They 
wanted to turn back, but the Colonel stepped in and 
changed their minds. He knew just how to say the 
right word at the right time and could smooth out any- 
thing. He found that one of the fellows still had three 
hundred dollars with him, and he sold him an eighth 
of a claim that had been overlooked ! 

" In spite of his tongue-shooting skill, though, he 
couldn't persuade all of them to stay in the boats after 
the drowning. Three of them insisted on walking along 
through the woods. They got lost and were not found 
for five days. 

" When we got to Giscome Portage, it was clear that 
it would take a long time to get all the stuff over the 
eight-mile carry. One day the Colonel called his part- 
ners together and said to them: 

" ' Gentlemen, it'll take several days to make this por- 
tage, and I'm going to make a quick trip down river 
after more supplies. I'll catch you up on Crooked 
River.' 

" So he took one of the Siwash and lit out down the 
Fraser in a light canoe. It was a week before any one 
happened to think that the next Tuesday was the day 
when the money in the Philadelphia bank became subject 
to the Colonel's order. They talked the thing over, and 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 269 

three of the most suspicious got into a canoe and set out 
for the nearest telegraph station, but didn't get there in 
time. None of the party ever saw the Colonel again, 
and none of them ever made any millions washing out 
gold on Parsnip River either." 

An almost equally weird episode was recently enacted 
in the Finlay country within my own knowledge. One 
day there appeared at the Philadelphia office of the 
Tonopah Mining Company an individual whom we shall 
call Dr. James Richardson. With him he brought some 
rich specimens of copper ore and stated that he had found 
them in a " blow-out " on the headwaters of Finlay 
River. His story was so explicit and the specimens were 
so rich that the officers of the Company sent two young 
mining engineers, whom we shall call Barrett and Mac- 
Pherson, to go to the " blow-out " with Richardson and 
make a report. 

The three reached Prince George early in the summer 
and assembled an expedition which, after six weeks of 
hard labor, reached the Long Canyon of the Finlay, in 
the neighborhood where Richardson said he had found 
the copper. 

Arrived there, however, he explained that the " blow- 
out " was several days' journey back from the river. 
After careful preparations the party set out overland 
with pack-sacks, but a few miles back in the mountains 
Richardson fell over a log and said he had sprained his 
ankle so badly that he would have to turn back to the 
camp on the river. He gave Barrett and MacPherson 
a rough map which they followed faithfully, only to dis- 
cover that the region was totally destitute of mineral of 
any sort. After some good sport with caribou, sheep, 
and goats, they returned to the river. Relations between 



270 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

them and Richardson thenceforth became decidedly 
strained, more particularly after they reached Fort 
Grahame on the return and there ascertained that cer- 
tain Indians whom Richardson claimed had guided him 
on his previous trip had never even seen him before. In 
reality, he had never been in the country at all, but proba- 
bly had talked with some who had, though what he ex- 
pected to make out of the trip is not apparent. 

At Finlay Forks old man Peterson and a trapper 
named Cowart joined the party and accompanied them 
back to Prince George. Relations between the doctor 
and the two engineers continued decidedly cool, and by 
and by Richardson became alarmed. One day he took 
old Peterson aside and gave him a letter, upon the back 
of which were instructions to the effect that if he, Rich- 
ardson, should meet with any fatal " accident," the letter 
was to be handed " To the King's Magistrate, Prince 
George, B. C." Soon after his return Peterson showed 
me the letter, and, as I had met the party on the Finlay, 
I was enough interested to copy parts of it. The gist 
of the whole thing was that the doctor was convinced 
that Barrett and MacPherson meant to kill him and 
then pretend that the tragedy was an accident. 

Neither of the engineers procured the " accident " 
that the doctor so much dreaded, but on the way up 
Crooked River one of them did miss some valuable 
beaver skins he had bought at the Forks. The skins 
were subsequently found in the doctor's baggage. In 
spite of all, however, the mining company, in response 
to a query wired by Barrett, replied that he should pay 
the doctor's expenses back to Philadelphia. It was done, 
and he was seen no more in Cariboo. 

The trapper and prospector cuts a fine figure in the 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 271 

woods and mountains, but too often he loses his usual 
good sense when he gets into town, and in wild debauch 
will often throw away the hard-come earnings of an entire 
season. John Barleycorn, not grizzlies, wolves, blizzards, 
or even wolverines, is his worst enemy. 

The most perfect physical specimen of the brotherhood 
I ever saw came to grief because of this enemy. He was 
a young fellow of perhaps twenty-seven, a native of the 
South, the son of a distinguished Presbyterian minister. 
He had ridden horseback from Arizona to Alberta and 
worked for a time as a packer, then turned prospector and 
trapper. He was a jovial, high-spirited, upstanding, 
black-eyed chap, so vigorous that one morning I saw 
him jump completely over a bare-backed caynse he was 
trying to mount. At the time I knew him he did not 
drink, but he had the reputation of being able to eat 
more candy and cuss more fluently than any other man 
in Alberta. He also had a sense of humor. When a 
petition was passed around for a postoffice at a certain 
point on the new transcontinental, some of the men who 
happened to be signing it added to their signatures their 
college degrees: " B.A.," " M.A.," "M.S.," etc. When 
it came his turn, he wrote down: " Dirck Hunter, C.E." 

" But you aren't a Civil Engineer," a bystander ob- 
jected. 

"Huh! " said Hunter, "that C.E. doesn't stand for 
Civil Engineer, it stands for Cayuse Expert! " 

One November Hunter and his partner came in to 
Edmonton for a short stay and registered at one of the 
hotels. They drank a good deal, and, when not himself 
for this reason, Hunter happened to look at the hotel 
register and discovered that some wag had signed his 
name, "Jack Johnson, Pugilist." This roused Hunter's 



272 TRAILMAKERS OF THE NORTHWEST 

Southern prejudices, and he made an unprovoked attack 
upon a negro porter, who was sweeping the floor. In 
self-defense the porter, a man of good character, struck 
Hunter over the head with a beer bottle. The injury 
was not considered serious, and little attention was paid 
to it until the next day, toward the end of which Hunter 
died of concussion of the brain. 

The negro was tried for murder, but his employers 
stood loyally by him, and his counsel made a shrewd 
speech picturing the defendant as fleeing from the South 
to escape race prejudice and taking refuge under the folds 
of the British flag. The jury quickly brought in a ver- 
dict of not guilty. Some of Hunter's friends were bitterly 
indignant. One of them offered the negro five dollars a 
day to cook for his outfit of packers, but the colored 
man was foxy enough to decline the job. 

The traveler in the wilderness comes to realize that 
there is something wonderfully attractive in the wild, free 
life of the trapper and prospector, but he also catches 
glimpses now and then of the reverse of the shield. The 
genuine member of the brotherhood usually has no home 
ties — only friends. Friends die or drift away as the years 
glide by, and as the infirmities of age creep upon him 
he is likely to feel the loneliness of his life. Not in- 
frequently he becomes a pathetic figure, unable longer 
to make a grubstake and dependent on charity for food 
and a home. Yet here and there a man remains hale 
and hearty despite his years, and I have heard of men 
of eighty who still hunted for golden sands in summer 
and followed the fur trail in winter and waited in their 
cabins in the woods for the final summons. At first 
thought such an end, alone without the soothing hand 
of wife or child, may seem most tragic, but, after all, 



TRAPPERS AND PROSPECTORS 273 

what does it matter? What death could be more subhrae 
than one alone with God? What tomb more restful 
than a lonely grave among the eternal hills? 

For a million years the mountains have looked down 
upon the pettiness of man, and though their sides are 
scarred by frost and wind and avalanche, they will look 
down for a million more. In their presence one can 
glimpse deeper than elsewhere into eternal verities and 
better realize the immensity of the unknowable universe. 



A LIST OF BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING 

The literature of Northwestern exploration and adventure is 
a vast one, and this bibliography does not purport to be in 
any sense exhaustive. It is merely a list of those books which 
the general reader would be likely to find most interesting. 
The hunter, the naturalist, the lover of wild places will find in 
these books the doorway to many hours of fascinating enjoy- 
ment. 

Amundsen, Roald, The Northwest Passage (New York, 1908), 
a charming book by one of the greatest explorers of all time. 
Burpee, Lawrence J., Among the Canadian Alps (London, 
19 14), a beautifully illustrated book which should be read 
by every one interested in the Canadian Rockies. 
Butler, William, The Great Lone Land (London, 1872), the 
author, an army officer, helped to put down the first Riel 
rebellion and then made a winter journey across the plains 
to the foothills of the Rockies and back to the Red River 
region; he had a gift for writing and his book is well worth 
reading. 
Butler, William, The Wild Northland (London, 1874), de- 
scribes in vivid language the incidents of a trip across the 
continent by way of the Great Plains, Peace River, and 
the Omineca. 
Cameron, Agnes D., The New North (New York, 1909), de- 
scribes a trip by steamer down the Mackenzie to its mouth 
and up Peace River through the plains country. 
Franklin, John, Narrative of a Journey to the Shores 0} The 
Polar Sea in the Years i8ig, 20, 21, and22 (London, 1823), 
contains the tragic story of " Franklin's First Voyage." 
Hanbury, David T., Sport and Travel in the Northland of 

275 



276 A LIST OF BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING 

Canada (New York, 1904), written by one of the most re- 
sourceful of sub-arctic travelers. 

Haworth, Paul L., On the Headwaters of Peace River (New 
York, 191 7), an account of a thousand-mile canoe trip to 
an unexplored range of the Canadian Rockies, In 19 19 
the author pushed still further into the region and later de- 
scribed his experiences in an article entitled " To the 
Quadacha Country and Mt. Lloyd George," in Scribner's 
Magazine for June, 1920. 

Hearne, Samuel, A Journal from Prince of Wales's Fort in 
Hudson's Bay to the Northern Ocean (London, 1795), a 
classic work that every one interested in adventure should 
read. A new edition, edited by J. B. Tyrrell, was published 
at Toronto in 191 1 by the Champlain Society. 

Hornaday, William T., Camp-Fires in the Canadian Rockies 
(New York, 1906), an extremely interesting and splendidly 
illustrated book by one of the greatest faunal naturalists of 
our time. 

Laut, Agnes C, Pathfinders of the West (Toronto, 1904)," an 
historical work which deals with the early period of explora- 
tion in Canada and our own Northwest. 

Laut, Agnes C, Conquest of the Great Northwest (2 vols., New 
York, 1908), deals mainly with the romantic history of the 
Hudson's Bay Company. 

Mackenzie, Alexander, Voyages (2 vols., London, 1802), de- 
scribes the explorer's celebrated journeys to the Arctic and 
the Pacific. 

Milton, Viscount, and W. B. Cheadle, The Northwest Passage 
by Land (London, 1865), a well- written account of a jour- 
ney across the Plains and through the Rockies by way of the 
Yellowhead Pass in the years 1862 and 1863. 

Pike, Warburton, The Barren Ground of Northern Canada 
(New ed., New York, 191 7), in some respects the most fas- 
cinating book that has been written about adventure in the 
Northwest. 



A LIST OF BOOKS FOR FURTHER READING 277 

Pike, Warburton, Through the Sub-Arctic Forest (New York, 
1896), an interesting book, though hardly so good as that 
describing his experiences in the Barren Ground. 

Seton, Ernest Thompson, The Arctic Prairies (New York, 
191 1 ), describes a summer trip to the Barren Grounds and 
contains many interesting observations on natural history. 

Southesk, Earl of, Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains 
. . . in 18 5Q and i860 (Edinburgh, 1875), the author 
crossed the great plains and penetrated some distance into 
the Rockies. 

Sheldon, Charles, The Wilderness of the Upper Yukon (New 
York, 191 1 ), the author made a study of the various species 
of mountain sheep in the Yukon country, and the story of 
his experiences makes one of the best hunting books that has 
ever been written. 

Sheldon, Charles, The Wilderness of the Pacific Coast Islands 
(New York, 1912), narrates the author's experiences hunt- 
ing bears and other big game in the region mentioned in the 
title. 

Tyrrell, J. W., Across the Sub-Arctics of Canada (Toronto, 
1897), describes the incidents of a canoe trip from Lake 
Athabasca to Chesterfield Inlet and up the west coast of 
Hudson Bay. 

Wilcox, Walter D., The Rockies of Canada (New York, 1900), 
a revised and enlarged edition of the same author's Camping 
in the Canadian Rockies. 



